TITAN AE II - The Secret of the Drej
by Tacochocopacokako
Summary: It is finished! Takes place directly after the movie. I have done my research on the history and happenings behind the story, so this one is realistic as far as it really could be a second film.
1. New Earth

TITAN

AE II

The Secret of the Drej

I do not own any of these characters, settings, and designs (even though I treat them as if I do). They all belong to Fox Animation Studios, therefore, I am not liable. Any plot or storyline that is in the slightest bit similar is merely coincidence; I came up with this all on my own. As a side note all Drej conversation has been written in English for a better understanding for the reader. I suggest you print it out because it is pretty long, just remember to come back and review.

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Chapter 1 - New Earth

3044-

Cale and Akima scanned the new landscape that they could now call their home. It was so fresh and inviting, even devoid of life, it was beautiful. The waves crashed at the wake on the rocks below and the rain fell with no seeming intention of stopping; it was perfect. The Andali sun pierced through the mystic clouds that rolled overhead and the air was fresh, so full of life and was filled with the aroma of the rain.

"Wow," Cale said with his arm around Akima's waist. He thought he had never cared about something like a new earth, but thanks to her, he discovered what all other humans knew. Every species deserves a home, and now, the human race had one too.

"What do we do now, Cale?" Akima asked turning toward Cale. She had a mixed countenance of joy and yet, confusion. She stood there with her hair heavy and darkened slightly by the rain.

"I guess we wait here until the colonies arrive." he replied down at her with rain running down his bangs and his hand now gripping her right upper arm. "When they do arrive, what would you like to do?" Cale asked with a large smile on his face. He shot her that smile that reassured her that everything was going to be all right.

"I suppose we should set up some sort of shelter." Akima suggested. The new earth left her not able to think; the idea of having their own planet was not tangible to her, even though she had dreamed about it since she was four.

Cale looked up for an instant and returned to focusing his gaze at Akima, "We can live in the Phoenix; the governor of New Bangkok used it as a home, remember?" Cale said with that familiar smile again. He then noticed that she wasn't just looking at him, she was gazing deeply into his eyes. She then put her left arm around his neck and almost pulled him down to her. He welcomed it by holding her with his right arm around her waist. Their faces got closer and Akima let out a little smile. Then, his lips pressed firmly on hers. The feeling was so wonderful and the embrace so tight, that the rain began to lose its chill. With their eyes closed in this deep kiss there was a feeling of well being among them, and they both felt it.

Cale pulled away from that embrace only to look at Akima as he still held her, and she him. "Akima," he said quietly as he still peered into her eyes, "I've known you for about a year now, and I think this seems appropriate." Cale said as they both let go of each other.

"Cale?" She said, just a little perplexed. Cale just stood there gathering his words. It wasn't too long before he completed his statement.

"Akima, please forgive me, but under the circumstances, this is all I have." Cale said while pulling off his ring and, gently while holding her hand, slipped the gold ring on to her middle finger, "I have learned that in that last year, I want to share this new home with you for the rest of my life." She looked up at him for she had a clue as to what this meant. Her eyes were nearly filled with tears of joy. "Akima, will you be my wife?" He finished as he knelt in front of her.

As soon as he had finished speaking she attacked him with a hug. Their cheeks were both touching and her chin was just over his shoulder. With tears of joy in her eyes she whispered into his ear, "Always." The hair in between was pushed upward as Cale put his arms around her. "Always," she repeated. She slightly just pulled her head away as Cale held both of her cheeks and kissed her again. A ship was landing off in the distance, but they hadn't noticed it. They both were too involved in the moment to notice anything else. The ground was moist and cold with the light sprinkle of the crystal clear rain.

"You're shaking." Cale said with a slight concern. "Come on; let's get you inside." He said getting up and helping her up off the ground. He put his arm around her shoulders to keep her warm and they both ran toward the Phoenix

_____________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, a small ship was docking with the Titan, which was in an orbit around the New Earth. The small spacecraft was in the shape of a rhombus and had diagonal yellow and black stripes painted on it. It crept closer and closer to the docking arm until it finally locked. Onboard was a science team that was to tend to the Titan.

"Haven't seen this thing in a while," said a man with a mustache. He was wearing a brown jacket and had even darker shoes on. He walked down the docking arm opening large, metallic doors. There were eleven others with him.

"Where exactly are these specimens, again?" a woman with black hair and glasses asked the man with the mustache.

"Up ahead; believe me, you won't miss them!" he replied. They opened the door that revealed the DNA specimens that they were to clone. Everything was just the way Cale and Akima had left it. The spacey room was still all gold and the computer console was all lit up along with the holograms on the turret controls. The woman went to go turn these off when she noticed the small blinking icon on the outside of the green hologram of the Titan.

"It looks like somebody is outside!" she said while pointing to it and addressing the man with the mustache. He ran over to it and thought for a little bit.

"I'll have somebody check it out." he said as he walked toward the rest of the team and picked a man to go and identify what it was. He went up and suited himself up in a spacesuit that Cale had used to join the circuit breakers. When he found the room with the faulty circuit breaker, he called in to the man with the mustache.

"Sir, you wanted to know what that blinking light was?" he said as his voice was a little muffled with static.

"Yeah, what is it?" the man with the mustache replied.

"I found a man, dead, he looks about, uh, mid 40's if I had to guess."

"Any idea as to what he died of?"

"Yeah, when I opened the room, a ton of blood was floating around; he appears to have a gash in his side. However, I found him jammed in the circuit breakers; might have died of electrical shock. Uh, anyway, what do I do with him?"

"Bring him to me; I would like to try something." the man with the mustache finished.

"Yeah, whatever." was all the scout had to say. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Light-years away, a conspiracy was being planned. The room pulsated with a blue energy and two Droheh stood patiently. Then a third rose up from the floor with one tangled arm higher than the other.

"Molalah, you've finally arrived." the Drej named Lehedihir said with its arms spread.

"I have been thinking quite a bit and have conjured up a solution to our problem." Molalah said while beginning to pace with its arms folded behind its back. The problem the Drej now had was that they were without a queen, and with no one to guide them, they did not know what to do. The Drej named Tigaj, a general spoke up.

"And what is this you've been thinking about?" Tigaj asked, growing impatient.

"What makes any normal drone a queen?" Molalah asked trying to get them to realize what it was about to say. Lehedihir and Tigaj both knew the answer, but it seemed foolish to them to answer.

"The Orb can make any drone a queen," Lehedihir shouted, "We all knew that, but we don't have it. It was destroyed along with Queen Susquehana when she was destroyed by the Titan." The energy in the walls shook along with Lehedihir's voice. The void that was Molalah's face stared back at Lehedihir. They all had eyes since the Queen was dead and they had their own free will.

"You know that before Octajava, the one that destroyed Earth, that the entire Drej species was originally ruled by a triarchy, three queens," Molalah raised a long, thin finger from its balled fist as if to appear intelligent, "If there were three queens then that means that there was, at one time, three Orbs. We do know that one was destroyed and that another was stolen by a D'amaran which started the war. So, where is the missing Orb?" Tigaj looked at Lehedihir for he understood what Molalah was shrieking about. Then, Lehedihir realized that Molalah had a point. Where is this third Orb if only two were destroyed?

"I suggest we find this third Orb; we are in need of a queen and haven't the Orb to destine a ruler," Tigaj started by walking toward a window, "I am a general, I can send several teams of slijah to discover the position of the lost Orb." He then turned to see Lehedihir who was becoming unsettled.

"I was Octajava's right-hand Drej," Lehedihir said while holding out his hand in a reasoning way, "that means that I should help you in your quest." Lehedihir didn't really want to help Tigaj, but only for the sake that he himself might obtain the Orb. He was originally next in line when Queen Octajava ruled, but when Susquehana ingested the Orb, he felt he was cheated out of being in command.

"You have no more authority, Lehedihir, Octajava is no longer in commission." Tigaj stated rather abruptly.

"But Susquehana never relieved me of my position." Lehedihir argued. Tigaj nodded his head in agreement. All three left the room and went to plan their tasks.

_____________________________________________________________________

"Akima," Cale said while turning on the heater inside the Phoenix while Akima was wrapped in a large, felt blanket, "would you like to keep your maiden name?" he asked. She was laying down in a bed that was connecting to the wall of the spacecraft. She sat up to answer his question.

" 'Akima Tucker,' hmm, has a nice ring to it. Why not?" Akima said while her eyes followed Cale as he walked in the room. It was never her intention to keep her maiden name, Cale just asked.

"Are you sure you're not goin' to miss 'Akima Kunimoto?' I mean, you really want to be a 'Tucker'?" He said while walking up to her and squatting in front of the bed. She gave him a sarcastic look.

"Of course; why wouldn't I?" she replied. He put his hand on her shoulder. She looked at his hand and then looked back up at his face. "Cale, I want to keep our relationship close but still --platonic."

"What do you mean by that?" he said as he stood up and walked back over to the heater and turned it off. He wanted the room to be dry ,but not humid. 

"I don't mind living with you 'n all, but I would like to enter into marriage as a virgin; it's one of the things my grandmother taught me." she said while turning to put her feet on the floor. He leaned on the wall with his elbow and turned his head to look at her.

"To tell you the truth I'm one also. I never had a chance to be involved with anybody. Tek always seemed to take me somewhere where there weren't a lot of humans." he walked over to Akima and sat down beside her on the bed. "If you want to, I can wait; no, I _will _wait, Akima, for you." He gave her a small kiss, simply because he didn't want to get carried away, and stood back up. He crawled up into the cockpit and sat on the back of the pilot's chair for the Phoenix was horizontal. He peered around looking out of the cockpit window at the expanse of the earth. Off in the distance he noticed a small drifter colony ship that had detached from the whole colony and landed. Its shape could only be seen in the light, mystic fog. He smiled to see people other than them on New Earth and jumped off of the back of the seat to find Akima.

"Akima, they've landed! They're here! Come and see!" he rushed into the room to find Akima lying down on the bed again. She sat up once again and removed the blanket from her.

"Where are they?" she asked, full of excitement. Cale grabbed her hand and led her up into the cockpit where he was seated. Cale pointed at the piece of the colony off in the distance. "We need to move the Phoenix over there, Cale." Akima taught as Cale gave her puzzled look.

"Why," Cale asked.

"For things like food. What we have here won't last forever and we need someplace to get more." she said. They buckled up and started the engine. The engines rumbled as they lifted off the ground. Akima slowly flew the Phoenix over to the settlement and landed it a short ways away. The colony ships all landed in a way that sort of made it a city. Cale and Akima opened the door to the Phoenix and climbed down to the earth.

"I wonder what colony this is." Cale pondered as he methodically climbed down the ladder. Akima was first to get off of the ladder and began to share Cale's curiosity, but somehow it was familiar to her and she didn't know how.

"I don't know, let's go ask around," she suggested. They walked up to a oriental man wearing a long, brown cloak. He was rather round with a bald head and green, grimy goggles that hid his eyes. He didn't notice them at first because he was surveying the landscape.

"Excuse me, sir," Akima asked as she caught his attention, "do you know the name of this colony?" The man stood there for a bit taking in what she asked.

"Houston," said he with a garbled voice. Akima turned to Cale who was busy looking at all the people.

"Cale," she alerted as she tugged his arm, "this is the colony I grew up in. I must not have recognized it scattered all over the place like this." Akima smiled to be back home again.

"Really, I guess you want to live here now?" he asked while putting his hands in his pockets. She nodded. They spent the rest of the day getting acquainted with people and telling them that they were responsible for New Earth. 


	2. Only the Beginning

**Chapter 2 - Only the Beginning**

It was the day before Cale and Akima's wedding. They were all finished with their plans for the marriage. This day they mostly spent in the Phoenix just lounging around. Cale was living on a different deck below Akima. This way, he was with her but was not technically living with her. He respected her privacy and called her on the intercom before he came up due to when he accidentally walked in on her while on the Valkyrie. He had sort of made his own little bedroom out of a small niche in the engine room.

"Hey, Akima," Cale buzzed on the intercom to speak to his fiancee. It was a short while where dead-air was all that was heard before her voice faintly spoke up. It had obviously taken her some time to reach her respective intercom.

"Yeah," she replied in a sort of monotonous tone. Cale leaned against the wall with his elbow so he could speak more clearly into the com. "Can I come up, I want to talk to you about something." 

"Why can't you just talk right here?" she asked. He sensed that Akima was disheartened about something by the way she spoke. This caused him to have a greater concern. "I think it'd be easier if I were there," Cale stated as a conclusion to looking for a reason to go to her.

"All right. Cale, I want to show you something," she said as she was now accepting his company. He immediately went out of his quarters and climbed a system of ladders in order to reach her position. She was staying on the deck that was directly under the cockpit. Cale lifted the panel that was in the floor and arose from it. He saw Akima sitting on her bed looking at a sheet of paper. Cale saw her troubled countenance and gently shut the panel as to not make a lot of noise. Normally, he would just let it fall and clang against the metal floor.

"What is that?" he asked as he walked over to where she was sitting and sat down beside her left. He leaned closer to Akima as he scanned the photograph she was holding of a woman who was holding Akima as a child. "Who is she?" he asked.

Akima gathered her words and then started her account. "Her name is Miwa Kunimoto. She was my grandmother. I thought she would be with me always, but now I see how far I've come without her. I learned everything from her. Everything from earth to martial arts,"

"You know martial arts?" Cale interrupted.

"A little bit, she taught me some hand-to-hand fighting as well as some fencing. My hair was styled as a promise to her. You see how my hair was long and black?" Cale nodded, "She brushed my hair every night before I went to bed. We talked like sisters while she brushed my hair." Akima's head then tilted down as a tear came out of her eye and ran down her cheek. "When she died, I cut my hair short and laid it in her grave. I made a vow to keep it short in memory of her. I just wish she was here, now. We often talked about our wedding days. She told me of hers and I told her of my dream wedding. I only wish she was here to see it." she finished as she turned to Cale and looked into his eyes. She found comfort there and rested her head on his shoulder. Cale embraced her so as to soothe her pain.

"Ya know, I wish my father was here," Cale said as he patted her pack. She was still lightly sobbing. "Then, I realized something, Akima," he consoled as he looked down at her, "my dad left a piece of himself here by giving us this planet. I always thought he had left me because he didn't care, but then I see that he gave me more than any other father has."

"I have a piece of my grandmother with my hair," Akima said, now feeling better and releasing her grasp on Cale. "She is with me as long as I keep a memory of her."

Akima wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve and stayed with Cale for the rest of the day.

The Andali sun shone with an orange brightness and was nearly setting. The rolling waves crashed upon the sand that was the beach. This place and this day had been chosen by Cale and Akima to be their wedding day. A myriad of people had joined to be the witnesses because there weren't that many marriages on drifter colonies. However, Cale was lucky to find a preacher to perform the wedding. The witnesses were sitting in chairs on either side of the aisle, which was just sand and newly grown grass.

Stith and Gune were there. Gune was sitting in the second row in his usual brown lab coat. Stith was a bride's maid and was wearing a white suit with black lapels. She stood in the back consoling Akima who was overjoyed, but still nervous. She was in a low cutoff white wedding gown with a veil that had three purple roses on the right side. Akima had thought and dreamed about this day since she was a little girl, but now, the day was here.

"I have always wanted this to happen in my life, Stith, but I never thought this would happen to me now." Akima whispered while standing behind the witnesses with Stith, who was fixing Akima's veil.

"What do you have to be worried about? I wish this had happened to me. You don't know how lucky you are," Stith whispered back with a reassuring tone.

"I love Cale," Akima said while looking at Cale who was standing in the front in his black tux with his hands behind him. He saw her look at him and he smiled back, "I guess I'm worried about the change: being 'Mrs. Tucker,'" Akima told. "This is all too new to me." She then peered back at Stith who just finished straightening Akima's veil.

"Akima, don't think of this as an end of a stage in your life. Nothing is ending," Stith said while holding Akima's chin, "your life with Cale is beginning. That's all that's changing." Akima's eyebrows raised for she now saw Stith's point. This is just a beginning. Akima looked back at Cale who was talking to the preacher telling him he wanted to start the procession. Suddenly, a feeling of peace came over her and she put on a tender smile to show it.

Cale wasn't worried about this thing one bit. He looked forward to this from the day he proposed to her with patience. Now his patience grew short, and he wanted Akima all to himself. Then the preacher announced that they were going to start. Everyone became silent. Stith directed the flower girls to start walking. There were six flower girls and they walked two by two down the aisle. They sprinkled the sand with pedals from wildflowers since flowers were scarce. 

"Okay, Akima, get ready, you're coming up," Stith said as she guided Akima to the start of the back of the aisle. Everyone seemed to turn to look behind them at Akima while she started to walk down the aisle. Cale stood in the front patiently watching her come to him, step by step. She held her bouquet with both hands and she still had that same tender smile. 

It seemed like an eternity to Cale; Akima appeared to move in slow motion to him. His face was in awe as he observed his bride. Even though there wasn't any music playing, there was in his mind. He almost didn't even blink.

She reached the front where Cale was and stood on his left side. He looked at her and she him. She silently mouthed out the words, 'I love you' and Cale copied her by doing the same. The preacher smiled and opened his book.

"We are gathered here today in the sight of God," the preacher started, "to join Cale Tucker and Akima Kunimoto in holy matrimony." Cale and Akima kept their attention on each other and just gazed into each other's eyes. "If anyone has good reason why these two should not wed, speak now or forever hold your peace," the preacher paused.

"No. No reason, all fine!" Gune squawked in a loud tone so everybody could hear. This made mostly everybody laugh, including Cale and Akima. Stith shook her head and smiled. The preacher gave a little giggle before he started again. Everybody quickly became quiet again waiting for the next words from the preacher's mouth. He had his finger on the part where he left off. 

"Do you, Cale, take Akima to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her?" the pastor asked. "I do," Cale said while turning his head to look tenderly at Akima.

"And do you, Akima," the pastor began, "take Cale to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only unto him?" Akima very clearly turned to Cale and vowed, "I will."

The pastor began the next segment by asking, "Cale, please repeat after me." Cale then repeated everything he said, "I ,Cale, take thee Akima, to be my wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you.." When he was done emulating the pastor he added, "I love you, Akima." Stith was in the back of the ceremony balling her eyes out. She didn't cry much, and this was a new concept to her.

The pastor then turned to Akima and asked her to repeat what he said. "I, Akima, take thee Cale, to be my husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you." she ended as she repeated he had said. Now, most everyone had a large smile on their face including Stith and Gune. Then, the pastor began the next section. "Do you have the ring?" he asked.

Cale pulled a small black box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a thin gold ring. It had a small, triangle shaped sapphire in it. She was already wearing the ring his father had given him. Cale took the ring out of the case, closed the case and stuffed it back in his pocket. Cale gave a large smile as he held the ring in front of Akima. As he slipped it on her finger, he recited his vow, "With this ring, I thee wed; all my love, I do thee give." He laughed a little, silently, because saying all the 'thee' s' made him feel a little funny. Cale and Akima had decided on a totally traditional wedding and this included all the funny words.

Akima continued to hold her hand out, backside up, and very thoroughly looked over the ring. It meant more to her now than the ring Cale had given to Akima that held the map. She pulled off a separate gold ring that she was to give to him and held it in her right hand. "With this ring," she started, looking from the ring into his hazel eyes, "I thee wed; all my love, I do thee give." She held his right hand and slid the ring on to his left ring finger. He eagerly watched her as she did this. After she made sure it was fixed firmly on his finger, she returned her gaze to Cale.

"You know what's next," he quietly whispered with a wink. She gave out a little silent giggle as he said this and very ambiguously nodded her head. The pastor's deep, theological voice interrupted the moment by saying, "I now pronounce you husband and wife. Cale, you may kiss the bride." Cale put his left hand on her right cheek and removed a purple strand from her face as he tilted his head down to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her head slightly to the left. They met in a long, dreamy kiss as the sun was setting in an orange hemisphere behind them. The light pierced through the small openings between their bodies and made the witnesses see them as two silhouettes. Occasionally, a whoop or a holler was heard. They pulled their faces apart, but still near, and turned toward the witnesses not withholding their large smiles. Cale held her left hand gently in his right. 

"I present to you," the pastor said while closing his black book, "Mr. and Mrs. Cale Tucker." Cale continued to hold Akima's hand as he quickly walked her back up the aisle and behind the witnesses. The witnesses stood up from their chairs and followed them to the reception area. Gune found Stith who had stayed and waited until everybody had left the procession. "Cale and Akima are wed," Gune chirped as he held his stubby hands in the air, "This is cause for happiness!" He began to dance and click his heels as Stith just nudged him in the back to lead him to where the reception was being held.

Several spotlights were attached to the tops of ships to provide light as the sky was quickly waning. Several tables were set up so they could all sit down when cake was to be served. Cale and Akima sat at a separate round table which faced the others. On the opposite end of the table sat a large wedding cake; about two and a half feet tall. On top were two bride and groom figurines standing hand-in-hand underneath an ornate, white gazebo.

"Hey, that's not me!" Cale said jokingly while looking over the brown haired groom figurine. This made Akima smile and giggle. "And you think I have blonde, curly hair!" she said as she pointed to the bride figurine. "You're too beautiful to be blonde," he said. He laughed back and noticed Stith lumbering with her kangaroo-like legs toward the two of them.

"I think people want cake," Stith said while handing Cale the cake-cutter. Cale lightly grabbed the handle to the cutter and asked Stith if she could get everybody's attention. "You have a loud, attention-getting voice." Cale explained. Stith then reared up on her legs to improve her height.

"Hey, everybody, attention up here!" She shouted as everybody turned to see where the stern, scratchy voice was coming from. Cale and Akima stood up, her arm around his elbow, and Cale began the announcement.

"I would like to thank everybody for coming tonight. The Mrs. and I appreciate it," he said as he turned his head to smile at Akima who also returned a smile, "so, let's just get y'all some cake!" Everybody cheered as he held up the cutter and sliced off a piece. He handed it to Akima with the cutter and she put it on a plate. Stith helped disperse the cake to the waiting crowd.

When it came time for them to eat their piece, they both fed each other as people commented and laughed occasionally made a remark or two. When they were both finished, Cale grabbed Akima's arm and led her out into the middle of the tables. "Cale, what are you doing?" Akima feverishly asked.

"You'll see," he said as he motioned to Stith to turn on a boombox that was hooked up to several large speakers. Some slow music began playing and Akima began to get the picture. "Now, I'm gonna warn you. I have two left feet." he said as he held out her left hand in his right and held her waist with his left. They slowly swayed back and forth to the music. 

"I love you," Akima said softly while Cale slowly led. "I-you," he replied in the same tone. Cale didn't know how to dance and was embarrassed when he did. This time was different. In that night, the greatest feeling came over both of them. In that moment, they realized just how much they loved each other. In that, it was only the beginning.


	3. The Start

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Chapter 3-The Start

"Well this feels strange," Cale said as he carried her over the threshold that was the Phoenix. They had just arrived home that night from the wedding. Akima's dress was draped over Cale's arms. One arm held the back of her thighs while the other was curled around her back. "What's so strange about it?" she asked. She had both of her arms around his neck.

"It's just that we lived here before we were married," Cale said with that reassuring look she had seen on him so many times before. "Don't worry, the strange part isn't holding you." She continued that same smile she had all during the wedding. He carried her over to the bed that was protruding out of the wall. While freeing the hand that held her back, he straightened out a pillow and set Akima on the bed, gently. She propped herself on her elbows as Cale continued standing beside the bed.

Akima took off the elaborate veil that Stith had paid so much attention to and dropped it at the foot of the bed. She then shook her head, freeing the two unique, purple bangs. Cale shimmied out of his black tux and, with a carefree attitude, threw it onto a nearby chair. He then worked the red bow tie off his neck and threw it away in a similar pattern. "Here, let me get this for you," he said as he gripped one of her shoes and slipped it off. She enjoyed his delicateness as he slipped off the shoe. He then did the same with the other shoe.

"These things are killing my feet," Cale said while eagerly untying the knots on the shoes and ever so quickly tore them from his feet. He sat on the bed beside Akima who was lying on her back just behind him. Cale turned his head to kiss Akima who had slipped out off the bed from behind him sending him to kiss the pillow instead. Akima was giggling as she turned her back to him. "What's that all about!" he said in a playful tone.

"Can you unzip me?" she said as Cale sat up again.

"Please," he replied with a sense of gratification. He slowly pulled the zipper down while taking note of her smooth back until the zipper reached her curvature. She slipped off the shoulders of the wedding gown, causing it to drop onto the floor around her. Cale stood up and unbuttoned the first button on his shirt and quickly ripped the rest of the shirt off. She turned around, now only wearing thin, black underwear, and walked over to Cale. He stood there waiting, in only his pants, and put his hand around the back of her neck to engage her in a kiss. She came closer and locked her lips with his. He took his other hand and held her waist with it. Both their lips were exploring each other's. Akima then wanted more so she put both of her hands on the cheeks of his face.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Akima stated between kisses. Cale moved his hand from her neck to her back.

"I love you, Akima," Cale said while pulling himself from the kiss.

"I know. I love you too, Cale, but I never had dreamed of this night." said she as she ran her finger down his cheek and gazed deeply into his eyes. "I guess I don't know what to do."

"That's okay," he reassured once again, "neither do I. We can figure this out, just do whatever you want."

"All right," she said as took a step back. Then, she held both sides of her top and removed it. Cale's eyes explored every inch in satisfaction. Akima felt funny; she wasn't as embarrassed as she was the first time Cale accidentally walked in on her on the Valkyrie. This somehow seemed appropriate. Akima crept closer and engaged Cale in another long, exploratory kiss. They closed their eyes in this deep moment and wanted to revel in it. She turned with her back toward the bed and he with her. Cale led her over to the bed, and when her legs touched the side, they both collapsed onto it. They never unlocked from this kiss even though they were on the bed.

"Oh, Akima, you took 'do whatever you want' farther than I thought." Cale whispered into her ear as he broke loose from a tight kiss. She continued to kiss Cale as she lightly gave a muffled giggle. She had her arms wrapped around his neck as if she was holding his head to hers and was kissing anything that landed in the way. "Here, let me help you with that." she said with a playful tone as she reached for his pants and unbuckled them.

"We are nearing the planet," a Droheh said while walking toward Tigaj. Tigaj turned his head to look at the Droheh and then at D'amara. They had one objective in mind: to find out where the Orb was hidden, and since the theft was D'amaran, they went here first. "Good, prepare fourteen squads of slijah, we need to breach the Mizrate Armada."

"Yes," the Droheh replied and walked out of the room. Tigaj turned around to face Molalah and Lehedihir. They stood side by side to help Tigaj with the attack. "How are we supposed to get information if we destroy them?" Lehedihir asked with sarcasm. 

"Once we annihilate a few, we can take prisoners and question them." Tigaj replied. Tigaj was a general, so he already had a few strategies in mind. The Drej warship, although smaller and less powerful than the Alahenena, was still threatening in appearance. It had a similar design to it, but was much smaller. It slowly spun on its axis as it coursed with energy. "The new technology has been downloaded into the weapons systems of all the slijah." Tigaj explained, "Just watch as this will be only a demonstration of what it can do."

Tigaj then sent some energy into a console he was standing in front of. This brought up a hologram of the D'amaran king. He stood there with great concern. "What is it you want? This is a peaceful planet and the war is over, what are you doing invading our space?" the king asked.

"Your highness, we seek the Orb. If we do not receive what we came for, we will destroy your fledgling fleet." Tigaj said with a pompous attitude.

"We do not have the Orb. It was relocated to the humans. What they did with it I do not know." the king said while stepping closer to the hologram. This caused Tigaj to become upset.

"For this, we will destroy your Armada. Ready your craft." he said as he turned off the hologram and turned to face Molalah. "Send the message to attack, leave as many prisoners as possible." Molalah nodded and sank through the floor.

The Mizrate Armada, D'amara's fleet of ships, were preparing for battle. The ships hummed and floated up to meet the slijahs just outside the atmosphere. They had a fleet about half the size of the Drej's, but their ships were more powerful. The Drej strategies relied mostly on overwhelming by numbers. The ships careened out of the atmosphere only to be outnumbered by hundreds of slijah. The Drej crafts fired without mercy upon the D'amaran ships who returned their fire.

The countless Drej hordes swarmed the fleeting ships. It was difficult for one fighter to aim at any single slijah. The endless amounts of them surrounded the fleet and soon they were all around. A slijah hit one of the Mizrate ships, but strangely, it didn't blow up. "My targeting system is off," the D'amaran pilot yelled. His craft had been hit by a few Drej ships as the hordes came toward them and then veered away.

"They didn't make crosshairs for no reason, yeehah!" another replied. He had just vaporized two slijah. The first was hit by him and it ran into the second, causing it to spin out of control and eventually disappear. "No, I mean it's on, but it's not responding to me," the D'amaran pilot explained with frustration, "It's as if the Drej were throwing it off somehow!"

Just then, two laserblasts from a slijah hit another D'amaran ship, causing blue energy to run in thin ribbons all over it. "Something's happening," the pilot screamed. The ship then turned toward another D'amaran ship and shot it down. 

"What in the Spiral Arm are you doing!" a D'amaran pilot yelled.

"I don't have control over my ship! I guess the Drej have somehow taken it over!" the pilot screamed back. Just then, his ship turned and faced the pilot that had questioned him. "Look out!" he cautioned as his ship fired upon the friendly ship and blew it to oblivion. "No!" he cried.

Another slijah shot and took over another ship, and another, and another. Soon, all of the Mizrate Armada had been either destroyed, or assimilated. All the craft returned to the Drej mothership. The pilots of the Armada had no choice but to sit tight in their craft and await imprisonment.

"Interesting," Lehedihir said with amazement, "I wonder, can this new technology be used on anything?" he asked while walking toward the window. Tigaj shook his head, "Not yet. We are developing ways that we should be able to, though. Patience." Lehedihir turned around to face Tigaj. He slowly crept closer to him until he was within arm distance. "I want it." he said, "Do you realize the power that we hold? We can turn entire armies against themselves, entire races could be our slaves, entire civilizations' technologies could be ours if this were a reality!"

"This technology could also be used against the humans, once we have a queen to rule, of course." Tigaj added. "Have any of the other ships found the Orb?" Lehedihir asked. 

"No, it's all right," Tigaj reassured, "We'll find it before they do." Lehedihir turned around and stood farther away now. Tigaj took his unfocused eyes from the ground and focused them on Lehedihir. "The technology will be researched." he said. Lehedihir nodded and fell through the floor.

"Wow!" Cale said as he laid there staring at the ceiling above the bed. It was the next morning and Akima's arms were still around him. It had been a long night and he had been awake for awhile. She was still asleep and he didn't care to wake her, he was enjoying just being there with her. Her cheek was resting on his shoulder when she finally awoke.

"Uh," Akima tiredly yawned as Cale had his arm around her back. "Good morning, Mrs. Tucker." he said. She didn't really move all that much, she kept her grip on Cale. She saw that Cale had the biggest smile on his face as he looked at her and she him. He was stroking her back as she laid still. She had the sheet around her underarm and her right leg over both of his legs.

"Wow," she quietly whispered, it was just loud enough for Cale to hear it. "That's what I said," Cale told while stroking her back. 

"Whatcha' want to do now?" she asked. Her hair covered a good portion of her face with the tilt of her head. Cale laid there in her arms for a moment. One word came across his mind.

"Breakfast," he said, "I can make it, but I'm not guaranteeing it'll be any good."

"Don't worry, I can cook," she explained while sliding her unclothed body out from the blankets and stood, "I used to be a cook on New Merrakech. I can take care of it." She walked over to her cloths and put on a black pair of pants that had a green stripe up the sides and a green shirt.

Cale laid there in bed thinking about the last night. He couldn't dismiss the feeling he had for Akima. It was somehow self-gratifying and yet, he cared the world for her. He made a commitment to himself that he wouldn't let his affectionateness wane over the course of their marriage. He was going to strive to make her life the best it could be and in turn make his the best as well. 


	4. The Return

****

Chapter 4-Return of a Friend

-Half a year later

It was a stormy night. The dark clouds loomed over the Houston colony. Loud claps of lightening pierced the night and illuminated the world for an instant, then left it in pitch black. The rain fell relentlessly, and created large puddles on the earth that, in most places, reached up to the knee. Cale and Akima were grateful that the Phoenix was situated vertically on high ground. They sat near a window watching the torrents of rain endlessly fall for they didn't have any other form of entertainment and it was also strange to them. She was sitting in his lap and whenever a flash shot by the window, she nearly jumped out of his arms. He held her though and gave her a sense of security.

"This has to be the worst storm I've ever seen." Cale said while embracing Akima from behind. "It's kinda cool though, we would have never seen storms like these out in space. You need a planet for one of these." he continued. She cuddled closer to him and laid her head back onto his shoulder, next to his face. 

"I wonder which earth was more beautiful." Akima wondered. She was only four when her family and she evacuated the original earth. She had only stories and verbal descriptions that filled her mind. This earth was somewhat different than the other. For one, the older one had a moon that the elders had talked about while this new one didn't have one. The first earth didn't seem to have as much water or oceans as this. The land on earth was closer and vast continents were created whereas the new earth's continents were more sparse and diffused.

"I don't know," Cale answered while putting his head over her shoulder, "but this one will do all right. I mean, we'll just have to make do with what we have." They both actually had no clue as to what the first earth looked like. They had been gone too long and had forgotten. They appreciated any planet they could live on. 

Another flash lit the sky, this time Akima didn't jump. She warmly sat in his arms. Cale smiled and gave Akima a small kiss on the cheek. She smiled tenderly in response to his intimacy. Cale had done his best to keep his commitment to being intimate with her. It was sort of easy: they didn't have any television, radio, or sports equipment. All that seemed to die with the first earth. Then, she gave a small moan. "Are you feeling sick again?" he asked while stroking her arm to give her a comforting feeling.

"No, I'm all right. Just a bit tired." she said while holding his hand. They sat there and continued watching the storm from the window. Then, some pounding sounds could be heard. They were in groups of three and had about five seconds between them. Akima was startled and made an attempt to get up, but Cale spoke first.

"Akima, I'll go see what it is." he said as she got up off of him. He ran over to the door and opened it slightly. Nothing could be seen due to the darkness, but when lightening struck it gave a quick silhouette of a figure in a long cloak. His face wasn't seen and he stood there not making a sound. "Who are you?" Cale asked impatiently with a distrustful countenance.

"I don't know," the character said, "I remember you, though, Cale. Can I come in." Cale still held the door open enough for the man to see his face, but wasn't quick to let him in. "Sure," he said as he slowly opened the door and let the man in. His cloak ended at his ankles and revealed his black shoes. He did have a hood over his head that covered his face in the darkness. As he walked in, he took off his hood. Both Cale and Akima's eyes grew large as they began to slowly step back in disbelief.

"Korso?" Cale said with an uncertain look. Korso stood there silently and gave them enough time to compose themselves. "Hi, kid." he said almost without emotion. He then turned to Akima. "Akima," he said in an acknowledging way. Both Cale and Akima never would have thought that he would come back. Of course they wouldn't, he died. But here he was standing in their house, all dripping wet from the rain.

"How did you-" Akima began, but couldn't find the words to finish the sentence for she was much too stunned.

"Survive," Korso finished her question, "Actually, I didn't. I was told that I am a construct, a double, a clone. I found myself in a laboratory in a tube when I awoke. I was surrounded by doctors. I was just as surprised to be alive as you are. I don't know how I can remember things from the other Korso, I just have his memories." he said while taking off his cloak which revealed the black shirt with the white stripe on the shoulder that Korso had worn. "The whole reason they had cloned me was very simple: interrogation. They wanted to know things about what happened and why I died. Once I proved to them that I could display human qualities, such as reasoning, they decided to let me go." he then walked across the room toward Cale. "Cale," he said with his hand on Cale's shoulder, "I can remember you father and your mother. I remember earth being destroyed. I remember the Titan. I remember my death." he took his hand off of Cale and turned toward Akima. "That never happened to me though."

Suddenly, lightening cracked at the end of Korso's explanation. Cale and Akima were both speechless. This was very strange to see someone come back from the dead, even if he was a clone. Korso thought a little while, trying to find some topic worthy of breaking the silence.

"So, what's happened since I was gone?" Korso asked.

"Well, New Earth was made-" Cale began.

"I can see _that_!" Korso said sarcastically.

"Akima and I got married," Cale said while holding up the back of his hand to show Korso his wedding band, "you should have been there, man. If we had known that, uh, that you were being cloned, we would have postponed it, right baby?" Akima, who was sitting with her legs folded underneath on the bed, shrugged in response to Cale's question.

"Nice one," Korso said with a wink.

"We live here, now, in the Phoenix." Cale said with his hands beholding the interior of the ship, "We converted it into a home." Akima began to get a bit curious. 

"So, why are you here? To drop by and say, 'hi'?" Akima questioned while standing up off the bed. She had a disturbed expression on her face. Korso nodded his head and sat down on a nearby box next to a wall. This gesture told Cale and Akima that this could be quite a long story. They went right back to the bed, sat down side-by-side, and held hands.

"You know, I was on a science facility for a while so, I picked up on some news. I'm sorry to say, but the Drej are back," Cale and Akima both gave a slight gasp.

"What do you mean they're back?" Cale asked.

"When we defeated the Drej, we only took out _one_ ship. Their entire race couldn't be supported on just one ship, now do ya? No, that was their only ship with enough fire power to destroy a planet. These Drej come from a star. Their energy comes from there and doesn't it seem right that pure energy beings would come from a star?"

"Yeah," Akima replied.

"It was a rhetorical question. Drej history goes like this: they evolved from inferior beings to what they are today. They had, at one time, three queens meaning three Orbs. Now these queens were empowered by something called the Orb. These things can make any normal Drej a queen by simply beating the current queen and ingesting the Orb. The only prime importance of that was that the Drej used to reproduce through the queen. When they came upon the star, they found all the energy they would ever need. They eventually harnessed this energy in order to make thousands of Drej. That's called the Lanoor. The energy from this star was then used in their ship, the Alahenena, to destroy earth.

"When you used the energy from their ship, Cale, you also absorbed the Orb along with it. At that time, that Orb meant everything to the Drej; almost as much as destroying earth did. You see, they only had the one Orb. One was destroyed, the second was absorbed and a third was captured by my team."

"What do you mean, '_your_ team'?" Akima asked. She displayed a mixed character.

"My team included Cale's mother and a D'amaran pilot, his name escapes me for the moment. We were on a small mission to infiltrate them, which started the whole war, and along the way, we managed to steal one of their Orbs. We dropped it off at a human military drifter colony. I can't remember the name of it or where it was. Anyway, that's the only Orb that's left; they have no other and it's against their code to make a fourth. That's basically why I'm here. I want you two to come with me on another little search."

"Why would we need to search for this now? Couldn't it wait?" Cale asked. He wasn't really eager to go out on another 'quest for humanity'. He'd had all the popularity he could stand from people about being the one to create the new planet. The people even made a statue of Akima and him. It was a life-sized silver statue that had Cale in a pioneering pose with Akima at his side. He only wanted to wind things down and live with Akima.

"Cale, the Drej have started to become hostile," Korso explained while standing up from his seat, "they have already attacked D'amara in search for the Orb. Who knows what they'll do to New Earth when they can't find it. If we destroy this thing before they get a hold of it, they'll be stuck without a queen. No one will be there to keep the Drej species together. They became too powerful once," he said, then turned his face to look out the window, past the looming, dark clouds to the night sky, "I'll see to it that that never happens again."

"Cale, why can't we go with Korso?" Akima logically asked. "Humanity could depend on it. You know the first place they'd attack would be earth if they found it." She stood and turned around in front of him. 

Cale didn't want to upset Akima so with a little thought he came around with an answer.

"All right, let's do it, but not for humanity, Akima, for us." Cale said as he jumped up from the bed. This put a smile on Akima's face and she ran up to hug him around the neck. Cale hoped he had made the right decision. For him, this was enough of a reason to go out on this venture. "When do we leave?" Cale asked as he tried to pry his head from Akima's grip to look at Korso. He stood there with his fists on his hips as usual.

"I'm gonna stock up on some supplies before we leave, so it'll be just a little while," Korso explained while taking a few steps in their direction, "don't start packing, though; it might be a while." 

"We can take you to Stith and Gune. We still have contact." Cale suggested to Korso as he held on to his embrace loosely with Akima. They swayed very slowly there for a while.

Cale invited Korso to stay with them until he was able to get his own place. Korso talked with them on through the night trying to catch up fully on what all had happened. He asked about the Titan, the new earth, Cale and Akima's wedding, and what had happened to them since then.


	5. Kronos

****

Chapter 5-Kronos

The sky was gray as usual and there was a soft breeze. It was a cool wind that had only enough strength to barely move your hair. The landscape was gray as well. It was always moist and only growing a hint of vegetation. The DNA clones were unleashed upon the earth, but the animals were scarce. They were kept under constant supervision by scientists so as they wouldn't die out on their own. 

Cale and Akima stood outside their Phoenix side by side. They were watching the Valkyrie land right in front of them just a safe distance away. The engines hummed as the blue fire shot out of several of them on the hull and on the back of the ship. The dark purplish-blue steel shimmered in the Andali sun and continued on with the heavy drone of the engines as it set out the landing struts and came to a quiet halt as it touched the ground. A door opened and a ramp came down from underneath the Valkyrie as Korso stood there waiting in the doorway. 

"Hey, how you doin'?" Korso asked in a welcoming way. Cale and his wife stood there with only two bags: one for her and one for him. 

"Just fine. We're ready." Akima replied while walking along with Cale up toward the ramp to greet Korso. 

"You got everything? We'll probably be gone for a while." Korso asked wanting to make sure they were ready for this.

"It's all here. We don't need that many things." Cale said as he and Akima then reached him on the ramp and followed him inside. Stith and Gune were there to greet them as they came aboard.

"Akima! It's so good to see you!" Stith said with a loud yell as she put her brown hand on Akima's shoulder. "Cale! It's great to see you again as well." Stith continued this time a little more calm. Gune was dancing around singing their names in repetition.

"Yeah, it's nice to be back." Cale stated while setting his bag down. Korso closed the door and retracted the ramp by pushing a button on the wall near to where they were standing. 

"Stith, Gune, prep for launch." Korso said and they obeyed by walking up a flight of stairs in order to reach the bridge. Stith went first and Gune quickly hopped up each step behind her with one foot. "Get situated; it's gonna be a long flight." Korso continued as he followed Stith and Gune up to the bridge.

Akima began to walk in the opposite direction of the three and Cale picked up his luggage and followed her. "Uh, Akima, where are you going?" Cale inquired while he hurriedly followed Akima through one door down a corridor and through a second door. 

"To my room." she replied glancing over her shoulder in her response.

"What about me?"

"Oh yeah, my room is too small for the two of us, isn't it?" Akima halted on a dime, making Cale lightly bump into her.

"It isn't _that_ small," Cale suggested, "We sure wouldn't be able to go to mine. That one was only a bed."

"Well, my bed is sort of small."

"That's not a problem with me," he said with a large, sly smile, "just as long as we're together." Akima started walking again and Cale continued to follow. They finally reached her room and set their bags down. Akima started to become overwhelmed with memories, some good some bad, when she came into her old room. The baseball, the towel, the pictures on her wall, it was all so comforting. She hadn't had a chance to take it with her since both she and Cale were chased off the Valkyrie by Preed and Korso. 

"I wonder if they actually need us up there." Cale said as he hopped on Akima's old bed. He his hands behind his head for support and laid on his back. 

"Well, we can stay here until they call for us." Akima suggested. She gave a sharp half-smile and backed into the door. She closed it with a soft clang and turned the locking wheel to catch his attention.

"I guess I'm not going anywhere for quite some time!" Cale replied taking hint of her innuendo.

"All ready to go, captain." Stith said from below the bridge. Korso held on to the rail as he climbed the stairs. Gune was just behind, doing nothing, really.

"Good. Let's get airborne." Korso said as he slumped down into his captain's chair and held on to the flight controls. He waited until Stith started the engines by pressing a button before he began to move the swivel double joystick. There wasn't a noise from the engines because they were on stealth runners from the inside. In fact, you wouldn't have been able to tell if the ship were moving let alone hear the engines fire. The Valkyrie levitated vertically upward toward the sky and spun on an axis counterclockwise. Once it had reached the direction they wanted to go, the rear engines started which made it head upward and eventually out of the gray, virgin atmosphere.

Gune walked out of the bridge and down the hallway into his lab. He walked with his usual cumbersome stride in which he nearly shuffled his feet. His steps made low thudding noises that could be heard all the way into his lab. Korso set the Valkyrie on autopilot and let go of the controls. He accomplished this by pressing a small, green button on the elliptical console infront of him. Then, he stood from his seat, "I'm gonna go talk to Cale," he announced to Stith who was studying a green, circular screen and pressing buttons that corresponded with it.

"Sure, go ahead, I was just thinking of going to weapons to make sure they're all there." Stith replied while still focusing her sight on the screen. Korso trotted down the metal stairs, making clanging sounds with his boots, and continued on his way out of the bridge. Stith followed him for a ways down the hall and then took a left at the first intersection. Korso walked with haste for the Valkyrie was big enough to get lost in if you didn't know your way. He kept his steadfast pace all the way until he reached Cale's old room.

He put both of his hands on the wheel and turned it to open the large door. "Cale, are you in there?" Korso asked with no avail. No one was in the small, rectangular room. He began to wonder where Cale could be. Then, it dawned on him, "Akima should know." He made an advent toward Akima's room which wasn't too far from Cale's old one. 

As he approached Akima's room, he began to hear low groaning noises. Korso put his ear to the door and realized that the groaning sounds were from two sources: Cale and Akima. He then heard Akima whisper something, but he couldn't make out what it was, and he figured he didn't want to know. He then realized what was going on and respected their privacy, so he began walking toward his own quarters. He knew that it would have been rude, not to mention embarrassing to them had he walked in.

Later, Cale came into Korso's room. Korso was sitting in his chair in his captain's room. Cale first stuck his head in the door, "Uh, I hear you wanted to see me?" Cale asked. Korso nodded and signaled Cale with a swipe of his hand that he may enter. Cale stepped in and sat down in the adjacent chair as Korso began.

"Enjoy yourself?" Korso asked with a sly smile which made Cale blush.

"We hardly miss a night." he replied with that same sly smile. "So, anyway, where the heck are we headed?"

"I plotted a course for Kronos. It's an old science facility. One of the first ones." Korso began and finished with a distressed expression, "Where your father first proposed the Titan project."

"What's there?" Cale asked inquisitively.

"I figured they might be able to tell us where it is. Also, the Valkyrie needs a few repairs. The engines were damaged in the Drej dogfight a little over a half a year ago and it's not as fast as it used to be, so it'll take a about a week to get there. We'll have to stay for a few days." Korso explained with his feet crossed and propped up on the table before them.

"I can fix it. While we're there, I'll spend time on it. So that's it?" Cale said with a taste of sarcasm, "I don't 'hold the key to humanity' anymore? I am totally expendable."

"No one's expendable, kid. The mission isn't based on you anymore, that's it."

Just then, a crash was heard and was followed by a small, "Ugh". Cale and Korso sat up in their seats and Korso took his feet off the table that overlooked space. "That sounded like Akima." Cale said as he hurriedly jumped up from his seat and ran to the door. He opened it and looked out both ways before he continued going through.

"Akima!" Cale yelled with concern. A little groan was in reply to his holler. He followed it to the bridge which wasn't far from where he was. He came storming in to find her on the floor in pain. "Akima, are you all right?" He asked as he ran to where she was sitting and began supporting her.

"I must have hurt my back. Ah!" she said with pain. "It's my lower back, it hurts. I fell down the stairs from the pilot's seat. I was only checking the settings on the controls."

"You think you can walk back to your room? You should lie down." Cale said as he helped her up. She hissed with pain again. "I can carry you. How 'bout that?"

"Sure." she replied as Cale got down a little and set her in his arms in a forklift style. He carried her all the way to their quarters and set her on the bed to rest.

The Valkyrie moved slowly to a docking tube that protruded from the outside of the spacestation Kronos. It was in the shape of a large ring with tubes that led to the center which was a large sphere. The Valkyrie slowed down, retracted its anterior wings and docked.

"Welcome to Kronos," Korso said, "I'm gonna go get info on the Orb. You two feel free to walk the station." Cale and Akima stood there in the door that led through the tube. Stith and Gune were there along with them. 

"I'm gonna go buy more weapons," Stith announced. 

"I go to science division with captain," Gune said.

Korso walked through the tube followed by Gune and Stith, Cale and Akima trailed a little behind. Stith went off as soon as they reached the inside of the station in order to go to her area of interest. Korso continued on his way and went around trying to find the head of the station. Cale and Akima were busy looking around at all of the scientists and came to notice that they were mostly human. Mostly everybody was wearing a lab coat. The hallways were large and white with blue lights in a long strip on the ceiling.

"What! You don't know where the Orb is?" Korso exclaimed in frustration while he started pacing. He was meeting with the head of the station who sat at a long, rectangular, black table with several scientists and counselors. Most of them were male. There was also a large black screen behind Korso and opposite the cabinet that displayed information about the Orb and the spacestation it was on.

"We told you where it was, we just don't know where that is." The head replied.

"Right, Gianni, but how don't you know where that is?"

"We lost contact with that military operated spacestation quite some time ago," a scientist answered with much patience, "It's been floating around out there in the middle of nowhere for who knows how long and in which direction."

Korso had his hands on his hips and was beginning to settle down just a little bit, "Do you people realize just how important this is to humanity?"

"It shouldn't be any of our importance what the Drej do with their own affairs; we have things to take care of ourselves, namely the Titan." the head interrupted.

"Where do you think the Drej are going once they get this thing, huh? They're probably afraid of us now more than ever! They'll be back with a new earth-destroying ship and wipe us out all over again." Korso said arguably as he turned and pointed at the head.

"We understand your concern, captain, but we don't feel as though this situation needs to be taken care of by ourselves. Tell you what we'll do, me and my board of directors will have a small meeting and we'll decide what needs to be done. Our decision will be final. You may be dismissed, captain Korso."

Korso walked through the door on his left and out into the white hallway where Gune was there waiting for him. 'Waiting' isn't really an appropriate word because Gune had found a shiny stethoscope to preoccupy himself for the time being. Korso walked out to find him with the stethoscope on Gune's head and he was flicking the metal disc that amplified noises. Gune shook when he did this and even let out a little yelp, but he went right back and flicked it again.

"All right, Gune, let's go." Korso said as he peeled the stethoscope from Gune's head and set it down on a nearby table counter.

"What they say, captain?" Gune asked. He followed Korso as he began to walk away toward the Valkyrie to call it a night.

"Don't know, they'll probably just write me off and do nothing about it." Korso replied not turning his head to look at the short, stubby Gune. They both returned to the ship and found Cale working on the Valkyrie and Akima there with him just to keep him company. Stith was still gone. "How's it coming, kid?" Korso asked.

"Okay. Looks like you had a puncture in this thruster, here. I should be done here in a few days. Akima can you hand me that wrench, dear?" Cale said.

"This one?" Akima asked while holding up a wrench about as big as her arm. Cale was underneath some large contraption lying on his back with his hands up in the machine working on it. Korso stood just behind Akima.

"No the bigger one." Cale said as he pointed to an even larger wrench. She handed it to him with both hands. "Thanks, honey, now anyway, Korso, how did the meeting go?"

"Well, I didn't find out exactly what I wanted to know, but I did find out where the Orb is." Akima intercepted Cale's question by asking it first.

"And where's that?" she asked.

"I don't know, they don't know. Supposedly, they lost track of it a long time ago, they didn't say why. It's just floating out there in the middle of nowhere; worst place to be. This might be a bit harder than finding the Titan. That, we knew a general idea as to where it was with your ring, Cale, but this, this is like lookin' for a needle in a haystack. It could be anywhere."

"Hey, you guys, I'm back!" Stith yelled once she reached the inside of the Valkyrie. She went to where the others were at and brought a small brown bag with her. "I got something for each of us." she announced and they all paid attention to her. "I figured we were fighting Drej so I found this, captain," she said as she pulled out a large weapon and several extra rounds to go with it, "It's an EMP grenade launcher. Ought to tear those Drej to shreds." Korso thanked her as she handed him the grenade launcher. "Cale, I got you a plasma shotgun. You pump it to charge the plasma up." Cale nodded as he was working to thank Stith. "And for you, Akima, I found these." she said as she pulled out a piece of cloth and unwrapped them. They were two wakizashi blades, or Japanese swords and each had a deep blue sheath.

"Oh, Stith, they're beautiful!" Akima exclaimed as she pulled one of the swords out of the sheath and looked it over.

"The blade length is nineteen and three quarters inches long and the handle in about six and a half of an inch long. I knew how much you cared about family roots, so I thought that it was right up your alley, you being Japanese an' all."

Stith then pulled out a large cylindrical weapon. It was a laser-guided missile launcher. "This one's for me!" she exclaimed as she put it over her shoulder. "I love this place, I didn't know you could find so many weapons on Kronos!"


	6. Unexpected Expectation

****

Chapter 6-Unexpected Expectation

Several Days Later-

Cale awoke in his quarters. He made a move to embrace Akima to find that she wasn't there. This made him sit up and look around the room. He noticed that her clothes were missing, which meant that she was already awake and somewhere else. Cale shrugged and wiped the sleep from his eyes with the tips of his fingers. It was becoming normal for Akima to rise and leave Cale in the bed. He turned himself so that his legs draped over the side of the bed and his feet touched the ground. Reaching for his clothes was a large task in the morning, but he somehow got around to it and put on his reddish-brown shirt and his brown cargo pants.

Cale left his room and began to walk the Valkyrie. He walked by the captain's quarters to find Korso not there. The hallways seemed too quiet as he continued his patrol. When he reached the bridge, he found Akima sitting in the copilot's chair on the lower level. The large window was open revealing a mass of stars in the black void of space. She was busy minding her own business which was playing around with her swords. She held the handle in one hand with the tip of the blade on the floor and spun it with the other hand.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with sharp objects?" Cale said with a cynical attitude.

"No. Actually quite the opposite, she taught me how to use them." she replied.

"Well, anyway, I was wondering where you were." he said as he walked up behind her chair and put his hands in his pockets. She sat sideways in the chair with her left leg over the left chair arm.

"Right here. I didn't want to disturb you as you slept and besides, my back hurt a little." she told with the sword up vertically in the air. The gleam from the blade caught Cale's eye.

"Have you seen Korso?" he asked.

"He is on the station in another board meeting. He says they're gonna give us Gianni's last position, but if I know Korso, that's not enough for him." she said as she returned the blade to the floor. Cale took his hands from his pockets and placed them on her shoulders as he continued to stand behind her chair.

"Oh. Well, do you want to make breakfast, should I, or are we eating in the Kronos mess hall?" Cale asked as he stooped over to put his head over her shoulder.

"The mess hall sounds like a good idea, neither one of us has to cook." she answered. Akima stood up from her chair sheathed both swords and put the strap over her head, so they would be diagonally on her back. This way, she could easily reach them by simply reaching over her shoulder and grabbing one.

Cale and Akima finally found the mess hall after about fifteen minutes of searching. When they reached it they found a small lowly-lit room with black mesh floors. The tables were octagonal the seats came up from the floor just like Tau 14 except the seats had backs that folded up. There were several advertisements that scrolled on holographic screens about the entire hall. In the center of the room was a hemisphere that projected a large holograph image of a news cast. It was buffet style and human cooks were actually behind the counters. This pleased them to see that they made some of their own kind of food.

"Hey, some _real_ food. It's been a while since I had some!" Cale said as he stood in the line and scooped a plateful of pancakes for both he and Akima with a spatula. He held a tray with two plates and two forks and knives. Along his way, he picked up some syrup and butter as well as some synthetically-made milk. Once he was finished on his raid he walked back to a table that Akima was sitting at. "Thanks, love." she said as he set the tray on the table right in front of her.

"I didn't know how much you wanted, so I got a plateful." he said as he handed Akima a plate and set the pancakes before her. He set his own plate right next to hers and sat down. Cale took his fork and gathered three pancakes and set them on his plate. The syrup slowly dripped from the small container as Cale poured some of the thick, sticky substance all about his meal. Akima forked six pancakes onto her plate all stacked one on the other. She then reached for the syrup and marinated the food with it. Cale was a little surprised and he almost laughed, but ended up holding it in. "You've been eating hearty meals, lately, dear." he said as he brought it to her attention.

"I'm hungry, Cale. Can't I just eat a little?" she said with pleading eyes. 

"Sure, but it's just not normal for you, honey. _I'm_ not even used to eating that much." he replied while shaking his fork at her. They both started eating and it was quiet for a while until Akima spoke up.

"What are these things supposed to be? I can make better pancakes than these guys." she complained and went right back to eating, "They taste like artificial food." she said with a full mouth.

"There's your answer. They're probably artificial, but at least they're not staring back at you like all those alien foods. Just think, Akima, you could have to spear it in order to eat it because it was hopping around the table." Akima laughed slightly at that statement, "I'm thankful that it's dead." he said as he finished.

"So, Cale, when do you think you'll be done with the repairs?" Akima asked as she scooped some pancakes into her mouth.

"Well, we could leave today, but it would still be too slow. I just gotta patch up a few things and we can take off." he said while he was picking around with his pancake.

"I want to get out of here as soon as possible. We haven't even started looking, yet." she said with, yet another mouthful of pancakes. They continued to eat there for another twenty minutes and talked about things like the food they had to get used to without an earth, some of the new weapons Stith bought, and somehow ended up on a discussion about the tattoo on Cale's arm. After their discussion, they returned their trays to the front and left the mess hall. Cale and Akima headed back to the Valkyrie and during their trip they discussed about what they were going to do that day.

"The plasma engines are almost finished. Shouldn't take long." Cale explained when they finally reached the Valkyrie. They passed by the bridge and their quarters. When they passed their quarters, Cale gave her a gesture of innuendo by smiling and nodding his head toward the door, but she politely turned him down and told him, "I'm not feeling well."

Cale pulled himself underneath the large, cylindrical generator and began working by welding a small hole in the side. Akima followed him into the engineering room, where he was working, and stood there in the doorway watching him handicraft this large contraption. That was one of the aspects she liked about Cale: he could fix or make just about anything. Just then, she felt this distasteful, warm feeling in her sternum. Small yellow sparks flew from the hot metal as Cale melted both sides of the hole. It formed an orange, thick fluid substance that covered the hole. Moments later, he lifted the black welder's mask from his face and rotated it back over his head to talk to Akima, but he noticed that she wasn't there. "Akima?" he said with a little confusion.

"Akima? Where are you?" he continued as he stood out from under the generator and walked out into the hallway. Looking to his left first and then his right, he didn't see her anywhere. Then, he heard a noise. He wasn't sure what it was, but he followed it down an adjacent hallway where he found a door that opened to a restroom. The sound stopped as he reached it. "Akima?"

She came staggering out and lost her balance, but leaned against the wall for support. She appeared as though she had some sort of illness. Cale raced to her and offered himself as support. She leaned on his shoulder and gave him a grateful smile and glance. "Are you okay?" he asked as he held her arm firmly so she wouldn't fall.

"I put my breakfast on display back there in the toilet." she said with a little moan. Cale smiled at this because he appreciated her sense of humor even in the worst of times.

"Perhaps you should lie down a little while." Cale suggested.

"No, I think I'd rather go down to medical and have Gune find out why I feel so sick." she replied. Cale shrugged and set off for engineering again. Akima took a different direction and found Gune in navigation where he normally was. She found him asleep in his chair tilted back.

"Hmm... very interesting," Gune said as he held her jaw and was peering down her throat with some sort of contraption that he looked through. Akima felt a small ounce of pain with Gune's roughness, and she gave a little, 'ouch,' here and there. "Partially singed esophagus membrane. Swollen larynx lymphatic nodes. Ahh... you threw up." he added as he let go of her jaw.

"Yeah, I knew that, but why am I ill?" she asked as she comforted her jaw by rubbing it with her left hand. She sat on the same table that she attended to Cale's wounds on before, where they actually first met, minus the window washer incident. 

"Ahh... I scan internal organ structure for illness." Gune wheezed as he stood on a stool in order to reach a scanner on the top shelf to the right of the medical bed. He almost couldn't reach it until a last stretch gave him enough grip to take it off. Gune hopped down from the stool and lumbered over to the medical bed where Akima patiently sat. "You- need lay back for this." he added.

Akima laid on her back and squinted her eyes due to the immensely bright light that shone overhead. Gune stood on the right side of the bed and pressed a few buttons in order to turn the scanner on and to put it on a specific setting. He set it to sense and identify molecules so bacterial ones would stand out. Gune lifted Akima's shirt and folded it upward at the bottom end of her ribcage. 

He set the scanner just below her sternum and moved it around, probing her upper digestive system. "Nothing in stomach," he announced as he continued to move it around.

"I threw up, remember?" she said with a sarcastic tone.

"I check inferior intestine." he replied. He moved the scanner down her stomach and along her abdominal line. When he slid it down to the normal position of the small intestine, he had problems finding it. Instead he found something totally different. Gune gasped and jumped away from the table and started dancing, "I find reason for illness!"

"Yeah? And?" she said, trying to facilitate the words from his mouth, as she sat up and let down her shirt.

"You going to be mother!" he said as he continued to dance about the room.

"What! I-, I- I'm pregnant!" she said with a shaky voice, "How didn't I know?"

"Fetus is approximately three and five-tenths in development. A few more weeks you should have noticed growth." Gune explained as he stopped dancing. Akima brushed a strand of purple hair out of her face that had found its way out when she was surprised. "Do you know the gender?" she asked, now calming down, "I would like to know."

"Ah... sex is female." he said as he pointed to the screen.

"Thanks, Gune." she said as she stood from her seat and walked out. Gune continued dancing around the room for a while longer. She walked down the hallway with another tender, motherly smile and either hand on her stomach. She was the a little nervous, though. She was thinking that it was too early for her; she'd turned twenty-one not long ago. It was also somewhat euphoric, also. She and Cale would get to raise one of their own. Wait! She'd forgotten about Cale! Akima stopped walking in the hallway to think a little. How was he going to respond to this? How was everybody else going to respond with the mission? She simply hoped they would take it lightly.

When Akima reached the engineering room, she didn't find Cale. The next place she searched were her quarters, but he wasn't there either. She finally found him in the captain's quarters with Korso. They were both sitting in the seats drinking a glowing, blue fluid. When she stood next to the door, she could hear them laughing hysterically at something.

"May I come in?" Akima asked as she poked her head in the door. They both calmed down and ,between giggles, motioned her to come in.

"Feeling better, baby?" Cale asked as he propped his hands on each knee. 

"Yes," she answered, still searching for words that wouldn't let it out just yet, "feeling much better, thanks."

"Well that's good," Korso said before he finished his glass of the drink.

"Cale," Akima addressed. He raised his eyebrows at this to show he was listening. She wasn't quite sure if she should tell him flat out, "You fixed the engines." Akima said in an effort to avert the news, "shouldn't we be leaving, now?"

"Yeah, you didn't know I fixed the engines? I did it while you were gone." Cale explained. He then turned to Korso as Akima stayed standing near the door, "She has a point there. We should be leaving-"

"Cale, I'm pregnant." Akima blurted out in the middle of his sentence. Both Korso and Cale slowly turned their heads to her. She stood there and smiled and patted her lower stomach.

"Cale, you ol' rascal! I knew you would do it one day!" Korso said, but Cale didn't respond. He was speechless. His jaw stayed dropped and his countenance was that of one astonished.

He slowly stood up from his chair and walked over to Akima. She expected the worst. He then hugged her and began laughing, "Akima, we're gonna have a baby. This is great!" he said as he rocked her to and fro, "What is it? Do ya know?"

"Girl!" Akima replied with an excited tone and expression.

"Wow! I'm gonna have a baby girl." Cale said, now calming down again.

"Good job, kid. Congrats Akima." Korso said as he stood and walked over to them put one arm over their shoulders, Akima on the left, Cale on the right. Just then, Stith came rushing in. "Oh, Akima! I'm so happy for you!" she said while hugging her with a great Mantrin hug.

"You knew?" Cale said, a little suspicious.

"I found out from Gune. He was rambling on about it as he frolicked down the hallways." Stith explained. Cale nodded for he understood. 

For the rest of the day, they all forgot about leaving just yet. They wanted some reason to wait on Akima hand and foot; especially Cale. he kept offering to get this and that, but Akima was too independent to be slaved for. She enjoyed their concern though. She could understand why they were all of a suddenly anxious about this unexpected expectation.


	7. Qu'ut Minor and Ishaq

****

Chapter 7-Qu'ut Minor and Ishaq

Cale woke up next to his sleeping wife, Akima. He laid nearest the wall and she lay facing him. Her eyes were slits and light gleamed off of her lips from the overhead lights that automatically turned on every 'morning'. He didn't care to wake her for he figured she would be a little grouchy if he did. He quietly slipped out of the bed by crawling out at the foot. She moved just a little and gave a tired sigh. Cale froze in his tracks in hopes that she'd not wake. He wanted to go and talk to Korso, so Cale put his cargo pants on and his brown, sleeveless shirt.

Cale slowly turned the handle on the door, opened it, and sneaked out, shutting the door quietly behind him. He realized the last night that he had no clue as to where they were going. He just knew that they were looking for the Orb and that kept his mind content until he really thought about it. It had been about five weeks since they left Kronos and launched into the black of space. He had plenty of other things to think about, namely his unanticipated daughter, and his mind just left the topic of the Orb, until now.

"Cale, g' morning." Korso said as Cale stepped in his door, "Come in." Korso had been sitting in his chair watching the stars shoot by outside of his window. It was normal for Korso to get up earlier than everybody else. This was explained by his military background. Usually, the last one up was Gune.

"Uh, Korso," Cale started as he walked next to the captain and sat down, "Where are we going, anyway?" he asked with his hands folded and both elbows resting on each knee.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. We're headed to Qu'ut Minor." Korso said, tilted back in his chair with his feet crossed and resting upon the table before them, "You have obviously been there before."

"How do you know?" Cale asked becoming unfettered. 

"You have the Qu'utchaa, the sign of the Qu'utians, on your arm, kid." Korso explained as he pointed to Cale's right arm. Cale raised his elbow so he could see the tattoo on his arm.

"The sword with spikevine around it symbolizes victory through persistence," Cale explained, "I had it tattooed on my arm after I saw just how determined the Qu'utians were to survive after their planet was destroyed by the Drej." Korso nodded at Cale's anecdote. "So anyway, what is on Qu'ut Minor?" Cale finally asked.

Korso took his feet from the table and set them on the floor adjacent to Cale. "There was a man named Mohammad Bourain. He was a friend of your father's and I've met him once or twice." Cale began to get confused and showed it by lowering his eyebrows, but Korso continued, "He's been to Gianni, but he's dead. He died in a spaceship accident. We're trying to find his son, Ishaq, who continued his father's business on Qu'ut Minor. I figured he might give us an even better lead."

Cale understood now and trusted that the captain knew what he was doing. He nodded and shrugged as he stood up from his seat, "Thanks." Korso turned and faced the stars again with his feet propped up on the table. "See ya at breakfast." Cale added as he walked out of the captain's room.

The Valkyrie came out of hyperspace just outside Qu'ut Minor. It was a small planet compared to its race's former home. Minor was bleak and bore the scars of the superior planet. Several craters were deep and wide enough to be considered valleys. The atmosphere was very weak and a human wouldn't be able to live on it.

The purple-steeled ship levitated downward and set down on the side of one of the gargantuan craters. At the bottom of the crater was a door that came up out of the sand.

"Looks just as it did when I was here." Cale sarcastically said as he and Korso stepped out on the ramp and surveyed the landscape. Stith and Akima followed the two out, Stith carrying two heavy laser cannons in each hand.

"You wouldn't want to live here, but it's not this place we're going to. We go down." Korso said as he pointed down in the middle of the crater. 

"Akima you stay here with Gune, " Cale said as he turned to her, "Korso, Stith, and I will go take care of this." Cale turned away to leave as Akima grabbed his arm.

"I want to go with you," she begged. Cale turned back to face her again.

"Akima, you and our daughter mean to much to me to lose both of you." Cale said as he held her slightly bloated stomach. She was nearing her fifth month.

"But how dangerous could it be? If you don't come back you would have lost us both anyway and I wouldn't want to lose you, so either way is the same." Akima explained, "And besides, I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, I noticed," Cale replied to her plead, "Well, I guess you have a point. All right, you can come." Cale smirked and let her walk in front of him, so he could keep an eye on her. They all left the ramp and continued walking down to the small door.

Inside of the planet was dark. There was a light made of some sort of small bug creature connected to the wall about every fifteen feet. They walked down a dark tunnel on several stairs cut out of the ground for a seeming eternity. At the end of the tunnel everybody was in awe as they saw what lay before them. It was a city, under the ground, all lit up with many small crafts flying around in the streets and above the buildings. Most of the structures were round at the top and were the color of a rustic brown. On the sides of the walls were several other tunnels which made it look like the inside of a large scale ant mound.

"This place has grown up." Cale announced as everybody started walking down toward the small city as Cale continued to take in the sight of the city. He eventually caught up and joined them at the foot of the stairs. The city was busy when they reached the street that led further into the city. There were trade shops, merchants, and innkeepers around the block where they were at.

The Qu'ution people were tall and thin. They were lizard-like in appearance and had colored, mossy patches of hair. They would occasionally crawl on all fours, but they mostly were bipedal. These people had lived underground for quite sometime and they didn't get out much.

Finally, they came to a building and stopped in front of it. "This is the place," Korso announced as he led the others inside. Akima winced; this place seemed familiar. And then, it struck her: this was Ishaq's house.

"Korso, why are we here, at Ishaq's house?" Akima asked. Korso stopped to turn to her. He was puzzled. He didn't know what had her all spooked.

"I figured he might know some info on the Orb. His father knew Cale's father and they both were at Gianni. I figured he might have told his kid a few things." Korso explained.

"I am the reason why his father's dead." Akima said as he turned to go into Ishaq's place. Everybody heard this and focused on Akima in disbelief.

"What do you mean, 'you're the reason'?" Cale interrupted. Akima sighed and looked at the ground.

"I killed him," she replied, "he was ill and I tried to fly him to a hospital, but at the time, I didn't know how to fly and I failed." she finished. Cale held her arm and tried to comfort her. It got quiet amongst them. Stith even failed to say something.

"Let's just go in." Korso said, getting a tad impatient. They followed and stepped inside. Inside were two Qu'utians, one standing at a counter on the far side of the room and the other waiting in a seat. The five slowly walked up to the one at the counter. "We're looking for Ishaq. Is he here?" Korso asked. The Qu'utian peered around at the group and took notice of Stith's weapons. He obeyed for fear that they might do something if they didn't find Ishaq.

"Sure, he's here. I'll go direct him to you." The Qu'utian replied. He walked around the counter and went out a door that led to the back of the building. 

"Stith, you mind if you hung outside and watched our backs?" Korso asked. Stith agreed and went back outside to wait. A few moments later, Ishaq came out of the door. He stood there and looked at the group. He had black hair wore a brown jacket. He had even darker pants and a white shirt underneath the jacket. His body stood erect as he walked around to the group.

"Do I know you?" Ishaq asked. He turned to Akima, "I know you, Akima."

"Hi, Ishaq, long time, no see." Akima monotonously answered.

"Who's this friend of yours?" He asked as he turned to Cale. She paused for a moment and looked at him with stern eyes.

"That's Cale," she taught as she walked forward to him, "my husband." Ishaq's eyes slightly closed. He looked at Akima and then to Cale.

"Congratulations." said he, seemingly void of emotion. Cale shot Akima an unsettled glance. She knew he didn't like him.

"This is Captain Korso," she explained, "He knew your father and would like to talk to you." Ishaq smirked a little. His short, dark hair spiked in the air on top of his square face.

"What is it you came for?" Ishaq asked.

"I hear your father was on the spacestation Gianni. Sound familiar?" Korso began. Ishaq shook his head, "We're looking for something called, 'The Orb', it belongs to the Drej which makes this threatening to us. I figured you would tell us where Gianni is." Ishaq laughed a little at this. Cale held the butt of his plasma shotgun that was strung over his back. Akima settled Cale down by holding his shoulder.

"How would I know where that Godforsaken place is?" Ishaq curtly said.

"Sorry, kid, we thought you might want to help out the human race." Korso expounded. Ishaq was quiet for a while; he seemed to seethe with hurt emotions.

"I'm sorry, I don't know, but I can tell you that Commander Bencal on D'amara would have a better idea." said Ishaq. He peered at them out of the corners of his eyes. "Can you leave Akima and me here?" he asked. Cale took a bold step forward, but Akima held him back with a gentle touch. He worriedly looked at her, but her expression told him it was all right. Korso and Cale politely walked outside and shut the door behind them. Ishaq waited until they were out of the room before he let loose on Akima.

"Why did you leave me, Akima?" Ishaq asked. She looked at him with disdain, but he looked at her with a broken love.

"I went to the Fauldro Flight Academy, I've already told you." she said.

"But what about me? Did you not love me? I thought we were family." Ishaq said, "We could have been more."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Ishaq." she said with a turn from him. Suddenly there was a crash outside. It sounded like an explosion that could have taken out the entire city. Akima ran out the door, leaving Ishaq there. What she found outside was Korso, Cale, and Stith firing upon several Drej who returned their fire. Qu'utians ran and screamed in horror as they scattered on the street like cockroaches when a light comes on. They were cautious with their aiming so they wouldn't hit any civilians, but the Drej shot through several just to get to them. Cale took cover with Korso behind a parked hovercar while Stith stood in the middle of the street and welcomed the lumbering Drej with a barbaric war cry.

"You brought the Drej here!" Ishaq exclaimed as he ran out the door after Akima. One Drone walked down the street and shot a Qu'utian mother and her child as they made an attempt to evacuate the street. Akima's fury at this sight made her sling her plasma pistol out of the holster that sat in a crooked way on her hips as if it was too big. She immediately fired on the Drej as she held tightly with both hands on her firearm. Her knuckles were white from her grip and her absolute hatred for that particular Drej seemed to lead her aim. She hit him in the left leg, causing that limb to disappear from its body. She quickly fired a second shot, hitting the Drej drone in the head which canceled him from existence.

Akima ran for her life across the street, dodging a myriad of blasts that zinged behind her every step. She dove toward Cale and Korso and landed in Cale's arms. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Akima answered with a cock of her pistol.

"Where's Ishaq?"

"Don't know, don't care."

Cale laughed at her answer only to be silenced by a Drej blast from his one side. He guarded his eyes from the debris that fell from his left. Cale pumped his shotgun and leaped out from behind the car with a spray of green plasma. It hit a Drej and seemed to dissolve him into air. He pumped again, still in a headlong run, and fired a second time. A drone fell to the ground with his arm and leg missing from Cale's shot and screamed as it hit the street with a thud. "Can't you just die!" Cale yelled as he pumped and fired a third time at the drone which fizzled the alien into thin air.

"Hang back!" Korso yelled from behind the car as he took his EMP grenades and fired a shell into the street. The shell flew out from the barrel with a chirping noised and landed about thirty feet in front of them. It bounced on the street until it finally rested in between four drones. It beeped and then sent out a blue wave of electromagnetic pulse in all directions that ran on the ground from the epicenter. The four Drej that were caught in this pulse evaporated into nothing as it ravaged them of their essence.

"Come on!" Stith yelled at the Drej, "Come and get me!" Two drones caught sight of her and one fired as he took a few steps forward. It barely missed Stith and singed a line of black, burnt hair on her left, giant ankle. She groaned at this and stumbled on the ground. To even the odds, she fired one of her large, cylindrical guns at the drone and killed the one that shot her. Its blue sparks flew in several directions as the Drej cried out for its life. The second that was with it stepped away from his disintegrated comrade and began pursuit of Stith. 

Stith had a hard time getting up. She fumbled around with her guns and finally managed to get on her kangaroo-like feet. Akima ran over to her and aided her with her balance. The Drej got closer and halted his run at them a short ways away. He raised his weapon that was fused into his arm and ran off of his own energy at the two. Korso saw this and was busy trying to reload. Cale was off fighting another Drej that tried to flank their position.

Akima, with an idea and a smirk of confidence ran up to the Drej and drew both swords, one in each hand. The drone prepared to fire, but Akima harried him with several slashes. The metal gleamed with each passing swipe and it seemed to sing along with her brandish. Her first slash took off the Drej's arm that held his pistol and he yelped with pain as his extremity was severed. Akima stepped forward as he fell back and swiped again. This sent his head flying off and both body and head disappeared. Akima held her swords in each hand in a Japanese cobra stance which has one foot before the other and her back reared up.

"We gotta get out of here!" Korso yelled from behind the hovercar. He slung his grenade launcher and pulled out his pistol and held it close to his face. He jumped out from behind the car and ran with Cale, "Make a run for the exit!" Korso yelled. Akima took Stith and guided her as she quickly hobbled with the rest of the group. Three drones came in from behind and began firing as they ran. Akima looked behind her Mantrin friend and saw the drones. Cale turned to find Akima, leaving Korso running for the stairs, and ran back to them. He pumped his shotgun and ran toward them.

Just as one Drej held up his gun, he was instantly vaporized by some unseen thing. Cale, Akima, and Stith looked around for the shooter and found Ishaq on his roof with a plasma rifle. "Go," he yelled, "I'll cover you!" Cale smirked at this, grabbed Akima's hand and ran with her and Stith. Ishaq pulled the bolt on his rifle to charge up another powerful plasma burst. He fired again and took out a second drone that was chasing after them. Ishaq shot him dead in his tracks.

Cale, Akima, and Stith ran up the dirt steps from which they entered. They continued their ascent until they reached that same door. When they reached it, Cale let loose his grip on his wife and tried to turn the wheel that opened the door. "Aghh, it's stuck!" he said as he groaned trying to open the seal that kept them in. A blue blast screamed past them and hit the dirt wall, sending enough debris to cover one's eyes. 

"Cale," Akima yelled while pointing behind her, "the Drej!" The blue creatures crawled up the steps on their hands and knees because the tunnel was too small for their complete standing height.

"Hold on!" Cale yelled as he pried Stith's gun from her hands.

"What are you doing!" Stith exclaimed as she was torn from her beloved weapon.

"Trust me!" Cale replied as he fired once upon the top hinge of the door and again at the bottom hinge. He handed Stith her gun and began to kick down the door as if there were no tomorrow. Finally, it felled with a loud clang and they each went running out. Stith fired behind her as they left and caused a cave in behind them. The Drej were instantly crushed in the claustrophobic cave. Cale, Akima, and Stith found themselves looking around for Korso and the Valkyrie, but they weren't on the ledge were they had last seen them. "That coward!" Cale exclaimed with a shake of his fist.

A rumbling came from overhead, it was the Valkyrie! He hadn't left after all! The ship hovered downward and nearly touched the ground. A very strong wind came from underneath that rushed between all of them. "Get in!" Korso's voice said from the outside amplifiers as he lowered the ramp. Cale helped Stith on first and then his wife. He pulled himself up onto the edge of the ramp. The Valkyrie began its climb into the air as his legs continued to hang in the air. Four Drej slijah screamed past the Valkyrie and opened fire. They hit the piston that pulled the ramp up. The shot startled Cale and he lost his grip and began slipping out of the ramp. The Valkyrie shot upward and put a significant amount of g-force on him. He lost his grip and fell from the edge. Cale screamed at the top of his lungs in pure fear. He was surprised to look up and see Akima holding tightly onto his hand.

"Give me your other hand!" she said with her hand open and stretching for his. Cale smiled and held on to her other hand with all his might. Akima pulled him up as Stith held on to her legs. Cale took one step up and stood in the rampway. Stith and Akima stood with him.

"The atmosphere! Go!" Cale yelled as he pushed them both through the hold. They ran with him and they all dove into the body of the ship as fire ran like liquid inside after them. The flame came through the doorway like some sort of rumbling engine and stayed contained in the door. Cale stumbled up and pushed the button that closed the door that led to the ramp which was jammed open. The fire squeezed in every way it could as the door closed and eventually shut it off. They could see fade out and empty into the black of space.

They all sat on the floor along the wall breathing heavily and sighing for relief. Their hearts pumped hard due to the thrilling and dangerous experience they had. Cale put his hand around Akima's head and pulled her to him. He gave her a kiss on the lips that Akima welcomed and deepened by putting her arms around his neck. They each were relieved that they were both all right. "Is everybody okay?" Stith asked as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Cale and Akima were too lost in the moment, but they were able to break their locking kiss to nod their heads.

Stith stumbled up and crept down the hall toward the bridge. Cale helped Akima up and began walking with her behind Stith. "Come on," he said, "let's get outta here."


	8. The Blockade

****

Chapter 8-The Blockade

"I need to go talk to Korso!" Cale hollered as he came storming toward the bridge. He had just nearly been killed had he have fallen off the ramp toward the planet surface below or been obliterated by the Qu'ut atmosphere as the Valkyrie plummeted upward. Cale took heavier steps and balled up his fists for he was angered by Korso.

"What are you going to do about it?" Akima asked.

"Pick a fight." Cale answered to her who was behind him because she didn't want to be in his way when he was mad, "He could have killed me, Akima! And you as well." Cale hurriedly walked into the bridge to see Korso come rushing down from the pilot's stairwell.

"Cale, Akima, good your here. I need your help." Korso said. Cale went rushing toward Korso with both fists out and ready to beat him to a pulp. Korso caught his approach and grabbed him as he stepped to his side. "This isn't the time to be doing this!" Korso yelled while trying to restrain Cale.

"Yeah, whatever!" Cale replied trying to free himself from Korso's firm grasp.

"Look out there, that's the reason I sped like that." Korso said trying to calm him down. Cale began to settle down and looked through the large cockpit window. His eyes widened like quarters when he beheld the sight of hundreds upon thousands of Drej slijah. The blue U-shaped crafts lingered in square rows of about forty wide and deep. In the midst of them, was a Drej mothership. Not as big as the Alahenena, yet intimidating enough to turn away armies. It rotated on its vertical axis counterclockwise and its three columns on either end appeared like horns, so menacing and cruel in appearance.

"That could be a problem." Akima said in shock. 

"Stith, get up here, we might need your shootin' skills!" Korso announced as he pushed a button and spoke into his watch.

"I'll be right there." she answered. Just then a beeping button was blinking on and off. Akima ran up and checked it out.

"Captain, they're hailing us." she said.

"On screen." Korso replied. Akima obeyed and pressed the blinking button in conjunction with a few others. A holographic screen came up in front of the cockpit window and covered it with a translucent image of two Drej creatures. 

"Greetings, I am general Tigaj of the royal slijah fleet." the Drej on the right said, "We understand that you are in search of the Orb."

"I'm Captain Joseph Korso of the civilian class yacht, the Valkyrie." Korso answered as he stood before the screen and in front of his seat, "How did you arrive on that bit of information?"

"I am Droheh Molalah, we have visited your human installation, Kronos, in search for the Orb. After several torturing techniques we managed to find out about you." the blue energy being stated.

"That's right, we're in search of the Orb." Korso said, now becoming a little squeamish, "What have you come to do?"

"We merely want to know if you hold it," Tigaj said, "If you do we will use force if necessary to plunder it."

"What if we are lookin' to destroy it?" Korso quite boldly asked.

"We'll be forced to tear your craft apart." Tigaj growled as he held out his hand and clenched his fist.

"Your not takin' us out without a fight." Korso said, getting closer to the screen. The hologram shrunk into a vertical line and shrunk even more into a dot and disappeared. Stith staggered in with a white cloth tied around her wounded leg.

"What's the pro..." she began, only to see for herself the doom that loomed outside, "Oh. Anyway, let's teach these guys a lesson!" Stith said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Can't we just jump into hyperspace and get outta here?" Cale asked.

"We can't because the navigation computer won't allow it," Akima explained, "it needs a clear path for it to work and there's too many stingers out there. 'Sides, don't you want to watch Drej sizzle?"

"I like your attitude," Korso replied, "Stith, you take hull cannon, Cale you take the right cannon, and Akima, left." He pointed to each of the controls and they each ran to their station and turned on the laser cannons. There was a small, round, green screen in the center of the controls and displayed all of the stingers that were in their trajectory. Korso sat down in his seat and quickly spun it around to grab a hold of the flight controls.

"We'll annihilate these valiant creatures!" Molalah exclaimed as he stood there watching the fleet with Tigaj. "We can capture their craft, can we not? They would be briefly useful to give us the next lead to finding the Orb."

"It will be difficult to capture this particular craft," Tigaj replied, "It will require several hits from the New Technology."

"But it would be beneficial to us to take them in." Molalah exclaimed.

"True, but we can track them with only one hit from the New Technology." Tigaj explained, "It would be much easier to follow them than to find it for ourselves." Tigaj then went back to a control panel that allowed him to communicate with several other authorities that were in slijah in order to control them. It was some sort of contraption that ran off of telepathy.

"Here we go!" Korso hollered from his seat as he firmly pressed the accelerator. The Valkyrie's six engines immediately turned on and sent the ship forward. Korso turned it around and did a loop-the-loop so they would have more combat space and could hit them head on.

The slijah began screaming forward, row by row, to meet the Valkyrie. The rows divided into groups of four and began to fly off to the sides. The Valkyrie kept on its pace as it hurtled toward the endless amounts of blue crafts. "Here they come." Akima said with anticipation. Finally the ships clashed and let loose all their firepower. The slijah bombarded the Valkyrie with torrents of laser blasts. The Valkyrie returned their green blasts of four into the horde and took out about ten.

"I'll try to get us beyond them so we can make a jump to hyperspace." Korso said while twisting and turning in his seat to steer the craft, "You guys just fight them off."

"What do ya think we're tryin' to do here?" Cale sarcastically replied. He had a stinger in his sights. It was red and went up to the right, so Cale turned the cannon to center the craft in the screen. When it reached the center, the stinger turned green, alerting him to fire so he pulled the triggers. The image went away, "Hey, I got one!"

"Good for you." Stith hollered from her post as she was eliminating stingers from her screen as if they were fish in a barrel. Akima always joked that Stith was such a good shot that she could shoot the eye off of a flea from fifty paces away and you could pick which eye! Akima wasn't a bad shot herself, mainly because Stith taught her how to shoot.

"Come on, you soil-sucker!" Akima yelled, full of frustration for this particular stinger that her laser blasts just were barely missing it behind the tail. The stinger kept flying in a zig-zag pattern as it dodged her blasts. Finally, she pulled a little in front of the fighter and gave it a lead. With eager eyes she blew it to smithereens. "Yes!" she celebrated by bringing her fist up and pulling it firmly back.

The stingers kept in their line formations until they were called upon. The purpose behind this was to keep the blockade. The Valkyrie flew like a bird trying to escape torrents of rain. It dodged and averted to the best of Korso's flying ability. It was hit, here and there, but for the most part, was escaping most of the blasts. "I've got an idea. You guys fire into the blockade as I ram through it head on." Korso said from his seat. The Valkyrie steered upward and started its run into the blockade with about five stingers trailing behind it. The lines immediately began firing upon the yacht and it took several hits. A loud crash was heard. The entire cockpit shook and Akima and Stith fell out of their seats. Sparks flew and went everywhere. Computer screens fizzed and popped.

"This is ridiculous!" Cale exclaimed. He jumped out of his seat and ran over to Akima. He slid on the sides of his legs when he reached her and held her to make sure she was all right. "I've got an idea that's better than this!" He yelled to her as smoke filled the room. Loud crashes could be heard all over the room and an occasional piece of metal fell from the ceiling. "Stay here!" he added. Korso gave a barbaric roar from frustration of not being able to get through. Cale ran out of the bridge, stumbling as the interior tipped one way and then the other. He staggered in there until he was able to find the door and crawled out.

Once Cale made an exodus from the bridge, he stood up and made an all out run for engineering. The last thing he wanted to happen was that the Drej would destroy the Valkyrie or even worse yet, Akima would die and not him. He didn't want to have to live without her. She was the reason he made every step possible, all the way to engineering.

On the bridge, Korso turned away from the blockade and turned back toward the planet. The Valkyrie from the outside looked like a flying wreck. It had small holes here and there and was singed from repeated fire. The top right sub-light engine was even beginning to peter out. It would flash and go out and then come back on again. Stith managed to get back up and stood in front of the blaster controls. "I can't aim straight!" She expostulated with frustration, "The whole targeting system is whacked!"

"What's the problem?" Korso asked as two blue shots hit the Valkyrie just before the cockpit window.

"I aim at a Drej fighter and the targeting system turns away from it." Stith said as another crash was heard. Akima sat on the floor and backed up against a wall. She embraced herself from every hit that the Valkyrie took. She held tightly on to a pipe that ran up the wall.

"Come on, Cale, whatever you're gonna do, do it fast." she muttered to herself.

Cale stood in front of the warp core computer. He tried to hit the manual warp button, but again, it wouldn't allow it. "C'mon, c'mon." he said as he pressed the button a second and a third time. He pressed so hard that the tip of his finger was slightly bent backward. When the computer wouldn't allow the hyperspace jump the third time Cale pounded on the control panel with both fists. "No!" he exclaimed. 

Cale looked around, trying to think quickly. He held his head with both hands over the ears as if he was trying to keep every idea in. The interior of the ship shook again, this time the lights flickered off and then back on again. Cale stumbled around trying to keep his balance as the ship rocked. He eventually failed and fell on his back before the computer. He groaned from his fall, but when he looked up, he saw a panel underneath the warp core engine.

"That's it! It's so crazy, it just might work!" he said as he stumbled upward and made his way over to the panel. He grabbed on to one edge and groaned as he slowly tore it open. Inside were several wires Cale ripped them out and began studying which one did what. "So let's see," he said to himself as the ship shuttered again, "this one goes to the computer and this one goes to the warp core..." he continued his search until he found a thin, red wire. It had a tag on it that read, 'MANUAL OVERRIDE'. This must be it.

"Hang on to something!" Korso yelled, "I'm gonna try a risky maneuver!" He then steered the injured Valkyrie back toward the planet. Akima managed to get up to her copilot's seat and buckled herself in. Akima saw what he was doing and she gasped. The tip of the ship began to have flames rip around it.

"We're coming in precipitously! We're gonna bounce right off the atmosphere! Are you nuts?!" Akima taught, holding onto her seat.

"That's the idea," Korso replied, yelling a little over the rumbling noise of them going into the atmosphere, "I'm going to use it to bounce us back out outside the blockade!" Korso gnashed his teeth because of his difficulty in keeping the ship steady. The helm shook all over the place.

"Hope you know what you're doing!" Akima exclaimed.

Cale fumbled around with the wires as he pulled the metal slightly out of the rubber. He pulled the one wire to the hyperdrive system over to the cut manual override wire. The hyperdrive wire he left whole, but he just removed some of the rubber casing so he could connect them. He just about had them together when he dropped the override wire. He quickly followed it down and held the two pieces of metal. He wrapped the override snugly around the hyperdrive wire and slid out from underneath the panel. He sat up and unfolded his legs to stand up. He dove with an outstretched hand and reached for the button. "Here it goes!" he said with his fingers figuratively crossed. He firmly pressed it down. Cale's hopes began to float when he saw a blue light come from the engine.

The Valkyrie continued going through the atmosphere until it violently turned upward. It rumbled and shot upward from the planet. "It's working!" Korso exclaimed. Stith was holding onto the laser controls and she was thrown back. The Drej saw the Valkyrie's creative attempt to escape and the entire fleet began to pursue the craft. Before they could even fire a shot off, the warp engine turned on. 

"What the-," Akima said as the stars around them began to become white lines and they hurtled forward. "That must be what Cale went to do!" she excitedly said.

Cale came running back into the cockpit. Korso turned around and got up from his seat. "Nice goin', kid." Korso said. Akima unbuckled herself from the seat and ran up to Cale. He held his arms open and she ran into them. They both embraced each other tightly.

"We did it! We made it out!" Akima exclaimed with her head over Cale's shoulder. 

"Yeah, that was close." Cale said while pulling his head back. Akima did the same. They both stood there and looked into each other's eyes. Cale smiled and leaned forward to kiss her. She held her head up and invited it. Cale's hand went up to the back of her head and held her tight. They were both very relieved.

"Hey you two," Korso interrupted as he stepped down the stairs, "you have a room for that." They each held on to each other, but paid attention to Korso. "We're back in business."

Gune came in and rubbed his eyes. "I fall asleep. What happen?" he said as he looked around at the bridge a little confused. Stith walked from the turret controls to where Gune was standing.

"Nothing, Gunie," she replied, "just had a little trouble escaping from the Drej." Stith took Gune by the arm and walked out of the bridge.

"But why everything all smashed up?" he asked in broken English. She didn't reply until they were out of the room. Cale looked from Stith to Akima.

"Come on, baby, let's go 'celebrate'" he said as he led her out with a sly smile. She giggled a little and rested her head on his shoulder as they left. Korso stood there in the bridge all alone. He surveyed the damage and shook his head.

"This is gonna be a long trip." he sighed.


	9. Ruth and the Subversives

****

Chapter 9-Ruth and the Subversives

Cale sat in the bridge quietly working under a computer panel. He was busy checking each and every system. He wouldn't work but only a few hours a day. There was still a bunch of debris around the bridge. A pipe here, a piece of glass there, it was a mess. He didn't know how he was supposed to fix all this. In fact, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to.

Korso came in to the bridge and stood there with his hands on his hips looking at Cale. Cale didn't notice him there for a while until Korso spoke up. "How's things comin'?" Korso asked.

"Well, not too good," he began, still working underneath the panel, "most of the systems are trashed: communications, targeting, deep-space radar." Cale said. "I'm just glad navigation is still up," he continued as he pulled himself out from underneath the large, dark computer, "we could be floating endlessly around here had that gone out."

"Sounds bad." Korso replied.

"It is." Cale returned. "Most of it we're probably going to have to replace." Korso sighed at his account.

"Why don't you take a break? C'mon, I'll get you a drink." Korso said as he nodded his head toward the exit of the bridge. Cale nodded in agreement and followed him out the door.

Korso entered his room and immediately walked over to a small, blue refrigerator box. Cale followed him in and closed the door behind them. He watched Korso as he yanked open the door to the box and took out two bottles with one hand of that familiar light-blue glowing liquid. He closed the door and walked over to Cale and offered the bottle in his left hand to him. "Here's a cold one." Korso said as he handed Cale the bottle.

"Thanks," Cale replied as he opened the bottle and took a big gulp.

"Have a seat." Korso said as he gestured to Cale to sit down by holding out his hand before the chair. Cale obeyed and sat down while setting the bottle on the table. As soon as he did this, he tilted back and folded his hands behind his head. Korso too sat down and took a sip from the bottle. He started to lightly swing his bottle back and forth as he began talking, "So, how's you and the Mrs. doin'?" Cale sat up.

"Huh? Oh, Akima!" Cale answered, "We're doin' just fine. She's really looking forward to the baby." Cale laughed a little and took a drink as he sat forward, closer to Korso.

"You know what your gonna name 'er?" Korso asked. He stopped swinging his drink and took a sip.

"Nah, not yet. We figure that we have plenty of time to think about things like that." Cale explained and set his bottle on the table. "Space is big enough for me." he added. It had already been three weeks since their last run-in with the Drej. The Valkyrie was faster than light, but it still took a fair amount of time to get between places. The warp engine carried ships a factor beyond light speed. It was invented when no one wanted to spend four and a half years just to get from the old earth to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. The warp engine could get you there within a day or two, but this still took time. They were trekking half-way across the galaxy.

"Well, anyway," Korso began, "it's great to see you and Akima like that." He paused long enough to take another gulp. "You two seem really happy together. I always knew she would make an excellent wife: she travels a lot, she is tough, beautiful, reckless, and above all, she knows how to cook." They both laughed at his last account of her.

"Well, she does know how to cook, but I must admit, she's still learning." Cale chuckled silently and took a drink. "Her old job as a chef in the New Merrakech souks paid off, because I really don't know about cooking." Cale paused a little and gathered words. "Yeah, she's great isn't she. I don't ever remember a night we didn't have-"

"Okay, kid, no need to go into detail!" Korso interrupted as they both shared a laugh. "Cale, when you reactivated the Titan, you were sitting on a gold mine." Korso began. "You could have been the ruler of new earth: an emperor, a tyrant, or maybe even a god to the people of earth." Korso leaned forward to get closer to Cale. "Why did you just give it all up? There are people who would kill to have that position and you just give it away."

"I wanted to be the savior of the human race, not a ruler." Cale started. "I guess I hadn't been around people long enough to realize just how bitter I was to them. The neglect my father showed me at that spaceport I will never forget."

"Your father saved you and the rest of humanity by doing that, Cale." Korso snapped, almost in defense of Sam. "You should be thankful he did or you would have died right along with him."

"He didn't have to leave me," Cale returned, "at that moment I would have given anything to be with him. I... was only... five." He began to rub his eyes and wipe away any tears that might have escaped. "He was my only family. I never knew my mother. He was all I had."

"Ah, your mom was somethin' else." Korso reminisced.

"You knew my mother!?" Cale said with quite a puzzled expression on his face.

"Yep. She was one tough cookie." he answered.

"How did you know her?"

"She was my partner. We were assigned along with me to protect your father, Sam." Korso told.

"What was her name? I never knew her name." Cale squeezed through before Korso could say something else.

"Her name was Ruth Kimball. She was a captain at the time, just like I was. We were specially assigned to rescue Professor Tucker from a Drej attack on Kronos. We got him out of there. As we worked together, though, I noticed she was starting to get closer to your father. They eventually married and that's how you're here." Korso said.

"What did she look like?" Cale asked, now with his complete and undivided attention to him.

"She was tall, strong, with long, flowing blonde hair. She was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. I sometimes hoped she would've chosen me, but I can't be jealous." Korso ended with a small sigh. Cale sat there for a bit and thought. Then, he picked up his drink and finished it. As he stood from his seat, he wiped his mouth with his forearm.

"Thanks," Cale said as he began to walk out only to pause and turn toward Korso one more time, "You've told me more than my father ever did."

"Anytime," he replied as they traded smiles. Cale then slowly left with his hands in his pockets. 

All the way through the hall his mind was racing with ideas about his mom. What she looked like, how she talked, what she did. He didn't go back to work, instead, he headed for Akima and his room. He wanted to share something with her and figured that their was no use trying to fix what couldn't be. Korso had just revealed a major part of himself that he never knew before. No matter how alien it was to him, he liked having an idea of his ancestors in mind. "Akima, uh, are you in there?" Cale asked as he leaned up against his door.

"Yeah, love," she answered from the bed on which she was sitting. She was wearing a large, green shirt that went past her knees for she had outgrown her pants. "How's the ship?"

"I think most of it is trashed," he answered as he opened the door just enough for him to walk through and closed it behind him, "we're gonna have to get replacement parts, I'm afraid. Anyway, I have a name for our daughter."

"I hope it's not anything like, 'Bob'!" she joked.

"No, I'm serious about this," he explained, "how 'bout the name, 'Ruth'?"

"Hmm, 'Ruth Tucker'," she said almost as if she were trying it out, "Well, it does roll easily off the tongue. Why Ruth?"

"It was the name of my mother. I never knew her." Cale said as he walked over to the bed and sat down on her left side. "I figured that if I couldn't have Ruth as a mother, I would like one as a daughter." Akima smiled at his compassion. 

"Cale, that's so sweet! Ruth Tucker it is!" said she. Cale gently paced his hand on her curved stomach and began to rub it tenderly.

"I just want the best for the baby." Cale quietly whispered while looking softly into her eyes. He came closer to her in order to engage her in a kiss. She followed and moved closer as well.

"I know you-" she said, but she was interrupted. She felt a small movement in her abdominal area. Cale gasped and looked up at her too.

"Was that the-?!" he asked, now feeling more intently looking for another faint vibration.

"Yes, Cale," Akima said with a small laughter of joy, "That was the baby! She's moving!"

As the Valkyrie shot through the emptiness of space, the Drej battleship followed close behind. They made sure they were keeping their distance, but could keep an eye on the object of pursuit. The lack of proximity of the two ships more or less camouflaged the Drej ship from viewers on the Valkyrie. It was passed off as another blue star off in the distance. The tip of the menacing marvel pointed directly in the common destination of the Valkyrie, wherever that might be.

"How long do we have to follow these _humans_?! I want to annihilate them right now!" Lehedihir raved. Tigaj watched him storm about the room in a controlled fit. Tigaj was much too mature to go off on incessant bantering like Lehedihir and it often annoyed him.

"Patience, Lehedihir, we shall destroy them soon enough. Once we know where the Orb is, we may dispose of them, but as of now, they are the only lead we have." Tigaj said, trying to calm him down.

"It is too great of a venture! What if they reach it first?!" Lehedihir ranted. His voice was rather high and it was an ear-sore to hear him like this.

"I will make sure of it." Tigaj replied in a mature manner.

"You'd better. Once we get there, I shall engulf the Orb and bring the Drej into a time of prosperity." Lehedihir said with a sense of glory in his voice. Tigaj became unsettled and, if he could, he scowled at his aspiration.

"Do you not realize that once we find the Orb, it will be every Droheh for himself?" Tigaj said deeply and quietly. Lehedihir turned from the stars and the Valkyrie to face him. It was quiet all except for their surging energy as they stood there looking over each other, as if they were searching for each other's weaknesses within their eyes. Again, they had their eyes because there wasn't any current ruler, so they were able to make their own thoughts.

"Do you think I'm afraid?" Lehedihir boldly asked getting close to his face.

"I think you are. I think you've been in fear ever since I took command of this vessel. Octajava was your only way to power." Tigaj replied with a low roar and a sly, evil smirk, "And she's dead now." Lehedihir winced and didn't want to back down. He tried to intimidate the seeming invulnerable Tigaj who was larger and a deeper blue than he was.

"What are you going to do, kill me?" Lehedihir asked, now fearing for his life.

"Not yet," He answered in that still, low voice, "It wouldn't appear to be favorable on my record to have committed murder for no... just reason." Lehedihir backed away. He attempted to break eye contact with his diplomatically incorrect adversary. "We can make it just." Tigaj added.

"Hamaj. I beseech you to forgive me for my trespasses on your ideas." Lehedihir said. 'Hamaj' was a Drej word that was equivalent to the English form of, 'apology', but it had a much stronger meaning.

"You keep your lack of proximity and you may keep your life." Tigaj replied. Lehedihir stayed where he was and searched the creature's black face.

"Why?" Lehedihir answered in a reasoning way, "If I don't rule, I am damned anyway." Lehedihir turned and exited by sinking through the floor.


	10. D'amara

****

Chapter 10-D'amara

Two weeks later-

Cale stood near his bedroom window. He was busy watching the outside of space through it and he had noticed something. He didn't quite know what it was, but he was sure it wasn't good. Just then, a clanging noise startled Cale and he looked around the room to see what it was. The door was opening, but he was relieved to see Akima coming in. "Wow, Cale, are you okay? You look like you found out you were dying or something." Akima said, taking full notice of his startled facial expression. She walked across the room toward him and stopped about arm's length away.

"No, I'm all right. I just jumped when you came in while I was thinking." he explained. He looked down at the floor and put both hands in his pockets.

"What's the matter?" she asked, getting closer and touching his cheek.

"I'm not sure, but I think we're being followed." he said looking back up from the floor to her. He led her over to the window and told her to look out. "You see that blue star?" he said as he pointed, "that star hasn't moved ever since we have been in hyperspace." Akima then realized what he was talking about because all of the stars around that one were whizzing by, yet that one stayed put.

"Oh, yeah, you're right." she said as she pulled away from the window and turned toward him again. "It shouldn't matter, though. Korso said that we were nearing D'amara anyway; just a few more minutes." she added.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." he said as he went and laid down on the bed. "How was your walk?"

"Just fine. I stopped by and talked to Stith for a while and then had a word with Korso." she replied.

The Valkyrie slowly came to rest on the planet D'amara. The soil was a deep green color and the water was a dark purple. They had arrived at night and landed on a spaceport within the city. The Valkyrie's purple, damaged steel seemed to fit in with the style of the planet. As it was landing, the ship swam in black skies that had faded blue ribbons on the horizon. Numerous stars dotted the sky, enough to give a glow to the alien planet.

The city was dark and mostly devoid of lights. The only lights were from lines of different floors of the large, black buildings. The skyscrapers were sharp and very plain, but were wonderful to look at. The walls on them seemed to reflect the light from the stars and other light sources. This was a metropolis of tall, black buildings with streets that crossed over top of each other. There was a six lane here, a ten lane there, the streets hovered in the air for miles. On these streets were various kinds of large hovercrafts and even though the streets were plenty, there was still traffic.

"Whoa! This place is awesome!" Cale said as they stepped out onto the landing pad. Korso, Stith, and Akima were with him. He had his shotgun strapped diagonally over his shoulder and on his back.

"Yep, this is it! D'amara." Korso said as he cocked his pistol, spun it on his finger, and set it in his holster. Korso's pistol was cylindrical and had several rings about it.

"We're gonna need the hovercraft, aren't we?" Akima asked with her swords ready and on her back in diagonal, opposite directions.

"Of course," Stith answered, "I wouldn't want to walk on one of those streets!"

"No," Korso objected, "we don't want to stay here too long. We can trade somethin' for jet-packs; that should do the job." Korso turned and began walking away.

"No, wait, we're using jet-packs? How-" Cale asked only to be interrupted by Korso.

"It will be quicker, trust me." Korso explained. He turned away from Cale and continued on his way. Cale looked back at Akima who stood there with Stith.

"Akima, I know you want to come, but this time, things may be different. We were pretty lucky to get out last time." he said with pleading eyes. She got closer and held his neck.

"And I know you care about me, but Cale, I'll be extra cautious. All right?" she replied. Cale leaned into her and gave her a good kiss. It was plenty long enough for them to start rubbing each other's backs.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't think being here in the Valkyrie will be any safer." Cale said as he pulled away, "Just be careful."

"I will." Akima replied. Cale walked with her behind Stith and held hands until they reached the inside of the port. They broke their bond only to put on a jet-pack.

Korso stood there with his newly acquired pack. It was a metallic, circular box with two square, blue lights on the bottom. They were very small, a person could sit in a seat and comfortably recline without being disturbed by it. He stood on the side of the street with his three companions. They watched him as if he was some sort of a guinea pig or something. He grabbed two, small joysticks on the sides of his pack and pushed the tiny, red buttons on each to turn the contraption on. Immediately it began humming and the blue lights turned on as Korso began to float upward in the air. It was a flameless jet-pack. It worked off of some sort of repulsorlift engine that gave off an awesome amount of the same magnetic polarity of the gravitational pull of the planet thus making the wearer rise.

"Come on, guys, try it!" Korso said as he levitated before them. Cale pushed his buttons and began rising up along with him.

"Whoa! This is fun!" he exclaimed as he defied gravity along with Korso. The two women pushed theirs as well and floated with them. Getting used to the feeling of near weightlessness, they all started to follow Korso. He led them down a street above one of the busy highways of D'amara. The tall, black buildings loomed over them on either side. Several other jet-packers flew by and along with them as they hovered around the city.

Cale began to notice that most of the people he was seeing were human. In fact, they looked too human to the point where one wouldn't be able to differentiate between the two. There were too many different people from different ethnic groups, black skin, white skin, red skin, they were all there. He became quite puzzled over this and caught up speed to Korso. "Are the D'amarans a humanoid race?" Cale asked Korso as they flew side-by-side over the street.

"Yeah, most of our scientists believe they might actually be ancestors of us somehow." He answered while floating up and down and speeding over the street. "I don't believe that, though. There's no way we could have descended from them." he added.

"How?" Cale said to his remark.

"Well, take the distance, for example, the original earth is way too far away from where we're at now and they were too simple of a race way back then. I call it coincidence." Korso explained. Cale nodded and slowed down. Korso shot past him because of his decelerated speed. He hung back and flew beside Akima. She flew just before Stith whose long legs hung under herself as she flew.

"You feeling all right, dear?" Cale asked while flying closer to her.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I?" Akima replied with her two purple strands of hair blowing up along the sides of her face.

"I figured they didn't design these things for expectant mothers." he explained.

"No, I'm quite all right." she assured, "Actually, I think she's fallen asleep. I haven't felt her moving." Her swords were sticking to the jet-pack due to the opposite polarity on top.

Korso began to fly downward to one building. It was still high on the building as the entrance was on a balcony. Large, purple lights were spelling alien sentences over the doorway to the place. They couldn't read the letters, but it was clearly some sort of a nightclub. There were several men and women, couples, outside in shiny, revealing dresses and black suits, each holding a drink in one hand. There was also some heavy dance music playing.

"Let's try this place." Korso announced as he landed on the balcony and turned off his pack. Cale came in just behind him with Akima at his side. Cale turned off his pack while he was still a few inches off of the ground. Stith flew over all of them and landed in front.

"What makes you think somebody here will know where Gianni is?" Cale asked as he walked up on Korso's right. Cale looked around at the tropical trees that hung over the edge of the balcony.

"I dunno, but we gotta start somewhere." he replied. Cale shrugged and followed him inside.

"I think I fit right in." Akima whispered to Stith for she saw a woman with green hair that covered one eye. Another had orange, spiky hair and was wearing a dress made out of mesh.

"I think I'll hang right here. I don't like places like these." Stith replied.

"All right, we shouldn't be here long." Akima stated and she went in. Cale stopped and waited at the door for her. They had to pay quite an amount of money to get in, like any other place on the old earth.

Inside was dark except for some stroboscope lights on the ceiling that rotated. There were a total of six: blue, green, orange, red, purple, and yellow. On the far side of the room was a bar that stretched across the entire wall. They were overwhelmed with the same kind of music they had heard outside, only this time, much louder. In the middle of the room was a dance floor. It was about thirty-five feet wide and deep. It was crowded with people freak dancing and the floor was covered by glass. Under the glass was an image of a multicolored circle which grew and shrank with the beat as streams of electricity ran out to the sides in all directions. There were also four dance platforms around the main floor where couples danced in spotlight. Around the floor there were several booth seats where people were eating various meals.

"Happenin' place, huh?" Cale said as the room filled his eyes with streaming retinal candy. Akima nodded as she took in the sight of the place. They kept looking around at all of the psychedelic decorations and lights around the club.

"Where's Korso at?" Akima asked while looking around with a confused expression. Cale shrugged and helped her try to spot Korso. "There he is!" she stated while pointing at the bar. Cale looked over everybody to see Korso sitting on a metallic stool at the bar. He was leaning back, waving at them to come sit beside him. Cale and Akima walked around the right side of the dance floor to try and reach the bar. When they got there, Cale helped Akima into her own seat two away from Korso. Cale then, sat between them and rested his elbows on the counter.

A bartender was going around serving drinks to everybody at the bar. It was a small woman with bubble-gum pink hair and two, short pigtails that were situated on the top of her head. She came over to Cale first. "So, what'll it be?" her high voice asked as she came to rest on the counter in front of Cale. Cale looked around and saw what Korso had gotten. 

"Uh, the Horsehead Red please." he replied.

"Sure thing, cutie." she said as she pulled up a glass and put it under a nozzle that sprayed the drink out as she pushed a button. She brought it back and set it in front of Cale. "There ya' are, sweetie." she said as she winked and stepped aside to Akima. "Anything for you, miss?"

"No thanks, I really shouldn't." Akima replied quite glibly to the bartender. The bartender winced and walked down to the other end. 

"What are we lookin' for here?" Cale asked as he leaned nearer to Korso who was drinking his red beverage. 

"I'm gonna start asking around. I guess there might be somebody who'd be in the Mizrate Armada." Korso explained. Just then, a deep voice spoke into their conversation.

"The Mizrate Armada is nearly gone." the voice said. Korso looked from Cale, who was on his right to a black man sitting on his left. The man was thin with a cleanly shaven, bald head. He had two white eyes that could clearly be seen in the dark room which he seemed to blend into so well. His chin curved upward and protruded slightly with large lips and a wide nose.

"Were you in the Mizrate Armada?" Korso asked the character.

"Yes, I was. It's albeit gone now. The Drej came and captured most of it. They eventually destroyed and killed most of our pilots and space crafts." said he.

"What did the Drej want?" Korso again asked.

"They said something about some Orb that they were looking for. We didn't have it, so they decided to harry our Armada." he said as he paused and took a drink, "We lost four squadrons to some new weapon that the Drej have. We didn't have a chance. I managed to crash land on the planet."

"What's this new weapon that they have?" Korso inquired.

"It's some sort of controlling device. Our technicians believe it is the concentrated energy of a drone that they fire at us which sort of gives it a mind. The energy goes into technical systems and disables them and begins to steer or operate the device on its own." said the black man.

"Really," Korso expounded as he put his hand on the man's shoulder, "Well, it looks like you're my new best friend. You see, were trying to find the Orb that's on Gianni except we don't know where it is. You, my friend, are now my closest bet to finding it." He extended his hand to the black man for a hand shake. "Name's Joe Korso."

"Samir Lorell, pleased to meet you." the man said as he shook Korso's hand.

"We were originally here to find Commander Bencal," Korso explained.

"Gianni, eh? I can help you," Samir said, "I've been there. I cannot come with you, but I can give you a homing beacon from my ship. I was designed after earth and D'amara were allied. What it does is it tells you where your desired ship, outpost, space colony, or whatever is by leading you in the direction. It was just in case our navigation system would shut off. This way, we would be able to find our way home without the system. Quite handy, isn't it?"

"When can we pick it up?" Korso asked.

"I was just about ready to leave." he replied.

"Good," Korso said as he turned toward Cale and Akima, "Cale, Akima, I found somebody that's gonna help us out." Korso stood up and led Samir over to them. Both Akima and Cale pivoted on their stools in order to face him. "This is Samir Lorell, formerly of the Mizrate Armada." Korso added.

"Hi, I'm Cale and this my wife, Akima." Cale said as he stood up and shook the D'amaran's hand. Cale touched Akima on the back when he introduced her.

"Greetings." Samir replied.

"He can give us somethin' that should tell us where Gianni is." Korso explained.

"Yes, I-" Samir started, only to be interrupted by Stith who lumbered up to them and broke up the conversation.

"We've got trouble," Stith explained as she stepped between Korso and Samir.

"Can't it wait?" Korso snapped.

"Not unless the six Drej stingers outside can." Stith replied. Everybody became alert and a bit worried. "I don't think they know we're here, but they're blocking our path to the ship. This really isn't the time for pleasantries!" she added.

Just then, a group of three Drej walked into the nightclub.


	11. Escape

****

Chapter 11-Escape 

Everybody in the club stopped dancing, eating, and drinking when the Drej came in. It was quiet as they held their guns up to the crowd that was there. The drones scanned the people in the room. Then, one drone on the right nudged his fellow drone and pointed to Cale and the group. The Drej pointed their guns at them. "And now we have to run." Korso said to the rest of his comrades. They all dove on the floor as the Drej began firing on the bar, hitting miscellaneous people, except their targets. Akima took cover behind the bar while the others were on the floor. People went into a screaming frenzy as their loved ones fell to the floor, dead. Samir got low to the floor beside Korso and pulled out his pistol.

Cale took off his shotgun and began putting shells in it and pumping it, getting the plasma inside to charge up. "No!" Korso yelled as he grabbed a hold of the tip of Cale's shotgun, "You'll hit people with the spread fire! Use your Raptor Magnum!" Cale nodded and whipped out his Magnum pistol like Korso had told him to. He pushed a button on the side of the gun that made a red laser sight come out just underneath the nozzle.

Stith stood up next to the bar and fired off a few shots at the Drej. She missed every time for the Drej had taken cover as well. She gave a loud, war cry as she shot her two, large guns off. The blast from her guns was powerful enough that it blew holes the size of basketballs into the walls of the joint. With a gun in each hand, she watched as the Drej moved, waiting for the perfect shot so as to not harm anyone.

Then, all three of the drones jumped up from behind their defensive blockage and all fired upon Stith at the same time. One blast pierced her shoulder and another nicked her waist while the third missed her. The two shots threw her backward and caused her to accidentally fire, hitting the orange strobe light. Stith groaned and held her wounds as her blood spattered on the wall behind her. "Get down!" Korso yelled as he grabbed Stith by her left arm, which connected to the wounded shoulder, and pulled her down to safety. 

Cale used the misfortune of Stith for his own gain by standing as soon as the three stood. His laser pierced through the smoke as it searched for a target. When the laser reached a drone's head he squeezed the trigger and hit the drone. Cale's Raptor Magnum gave a loud bang as the green blast smashed into the drone's head which diffused the entire body. The other drones crouched down and took cover behind their own respective dance platforms. 

Korso rolled out behind his cover with his pistol ready. A drone saw him rolling and fired at him. Korso dodged his blast with another roll and returned his fire at the Drej. He, too, missed his target and went to dive back behind cover, but the Drej shot the gun out of Korso's hand. "Agh!" Korso exclaimed as his pistol flew back and landed on a table behind him. Samir jumped out and covered Korso as he shuffled on the floor. The Drej creature, from its crouching position, fired one quick shot and hit Samir's hand. "Ahha!" he exclaimed.

Cale caught sight of the drone peaking out that held Korso and Samir in their position. The laser searched through the dance floor until it reached the Drej's head. To Drej, only head and thorax shots were fatal. Cale pulled the trigger as his silver, square-looking gun let out a burst of plasma which flew directly for the drone. The Drej's head flew back and his body fell limp as he lay back on the floor and disappeared.

The one Drej stood up and grabbed a woman wearing a blue dress that cut off at the shoulders. The drone's movements seemed to be in one place and then another as the strobe lights revolved overhead. He held the woman directly in front of his as a human shield and shoved his gun into her lower back. The woman was scared out of her mind as he led her down onto the dance floor, amongst other people. Her lips quivered and her movements were skittish. Everybody was on the ground, face first. Some people dead, some trembling for fear for their lives as the Drej led the woman out into the center of the dance floor.

Cale stood and pointed his Magnum at the Drej, but the woman was in the way! She screamed when laser shone on her forehead. "Don't worry! I'm not gonna hurt you!" Cale said, trying to calm her down. She still trembled as the Drej tightened his grip on her. "Let her go!" Cale yelled at the Drej, as he kept his gun pointed at the two. For a second, the drone peeked over her shoulder and watched the movements of Cale's gun. He paused, and said something in Drej. The drone fired his gun, sending a blast of plasma through the woman's midsection and pierced Cale's upper, left leg. Blood from the woman splashed out of the wound and onto Cale as he screamed and fell on the floor, holding his leg. "Oh, God!" Cale seethed as lay back on the floor, comforting his leg.

The Drej stepped over the fallen woman and walked to Cale. His footsteps clanged like metal as his feet hit the floor. He stood over Cale, cocked his gun, and pointed it at Cale. Cale sat there, with his eyes wide, looking down the black barrel of the blue gun. The drone braced his arm to fire, when a loud swishing sound could be heard. The drone looked up from Cale to see where the noised was coming from.

A gleam of metal flew, end over end, and stuck in the drone's head. It was a wakazashi blade! Cale looked up from the floor at Akima who was behind the bar, still had her hand extended from the throw. The Drej was swept off of his feet as he fell. He fizzled out even before he hit the ground. "Let's get out of here!" Akima said as she climbed up and over the bar and ran into the dance floor to pick up her sword. Stith, Korso, and Samir stood up and collected their guns. Cale struggled to get up as he seethed with pain for his leg. Akima came and helped him around while he limped out toward the door. "Can you walk?" Akima asked as she hung Cale's arm over her shoulder.

"Yeah, ah... it just hurts." Cale replied while trying to support himself. "Akima you really shouldn't, the baby-" he started.

"Don't worry. I can take care of myself." she said while helping him out the door. They all stood on the balcony which was albeit deserted now. Six Drej slijah screeched by from left to right as they fired on the balcony.

"Get down!" Korso yelled as he dove for the ground. Everybody obeyed and braced themselves while they brought an onslaught of attacks on the balcony. "Samir," Korso addressed while on the ground, "can you lead us to your ship and give us the beacon right now?" 

"Yes, it's not far." he replied. "Follow me!" Samir yelled as he turned on his jet-pack and flew up into the air. 

"Once we're in the air, I'll be all right." Cale told Akima as he pulled away and started his jet-pack. She started hers and began levitating next to him. Stith let go of her wounded arm and sucked up the pain so she could have both hands on the controls. They each flew away from the balcony in a hurry.

They all sped in a line with Samir leading, Korso close behind, Cale and Akima flying side-by-side, and Stith who made up the rear. Each passing building seemed like a blur by their speed. Flashes of lights, street signs, and anybody in the way zoomed past them as they made haste on their getaway. Stith was busy tending to her shoulder when she saw something over it. It was the six Drej fighters, all in formation and racing toward them. "Hey, guys, we got company!" Stith announced as everybody turned to look over their shoulders as well.

"Oh, great!" Cale sarcastically said as he saw the stingers whizzing by buildings and dodging objects, only to return to formation.

"Move!" Korso ordered while facing forward again and speeding up.

"Come on!" Stith yelled as she pointed her gun back and fired. The Drej took evasive maneuvers and cleared her shot. "Oh, you think you got moves!!" she added with a cocky attitude as she turned and flew on her back. She held out both large guns and began firing shots of three out of each. The first two sets missed them, but the third disintegrated the stinger on the left wing. "Woohooooo!" Stith celebrated while turning over and increasing speed. The stingers increased speed as well and kept on Stith's tail.

They each fired shots at Stith who evaded each blast by zigzagging around. She eventually caught up to Cale and Akima who were following close behind Korso. They all steered left as there was a building in the way. A couple of blue laser blasts whizzed by right over their heads. "Yeeoow!" Cale exclaimed while ducking the shots. 

"Keep comin'! Samir tells me we're almost there!" Korso announced by turning his head over his shoulder.

They each followed Samir as he began a steady descent toward a raised landing pad. It was a square platform that loomed hundreds of feet above the ground. There were various crafts that were parked a uniform distance from each other. Samir came to rest on the edge of the platform with Korso, Cale, Akima, and Stith landing behind him. They all ran as the five Drej fighters came speeding forward, firing blasts as they ran. The shots hit just behind their feet as they ran with Samir who was heading for his ship. The blasts grew increasingly closer as explosions that were caused from them billowed up.

Then, a flash came in front of the group and Samir was thrown off of his feet as an explosion from a laser blast hit underneath him. He screamed as he went up into the air, but there was too much fire around him so they couldn't see where he was. Samir fell to the ground with a loud thud. As the smoke cleared they all saw him on the ground. "Samir!" Korso yelled as he ran up to the black man. He lay there, missing his left arm and leg, writhing and screaming with excruciating pain. Large puddles of blood were beginning to accumulate as he lay there.

Korso knelt down beside him and tried to console him. Samir tried to get words out, but all that could be heard was groaning. "I-, I took one, oh!" he cried while starting to settle down. "Listen, ugh, the beacon is in the, ah, navigation port of my ship. It's that one right there," Samir said as he pointed to a triangular ship two landing spots away with his only arm, "They're, ah, turnin' around. You, ugh, get out of here."

"I don't just leave somebody in need!" Korso replied as he knelt there holding up the black man.

"No, ugh, I'm a goner, just go!" Samir waved. Korso laid him back and stood up. 

"Come on," he said as he turned and ran toward Samir's ship. The others ran after Korso. He climbed up into the cockpit and started searching for the navigation system. "You guys cover me while I'm busy." he ordered. They all obeyed and raised their guns up to the sky, waiting for the slijah to return. 

"Here they come!" Akima said as she pointed up into the air. The Drej fighters screamed downward and raced forward, opening fire upon the landing platform. Stith held her ground and shot with her good arm at the group of blue fighters. She hit the center one and it exploded into a shower of blue, white sparks.

"You got nothin'!" Stith taunted as the fighter blew up.

"Nice one!" Akima praised as she shot twice at one fighter and hit it on the wing. The fighter spun out of control as a slug trail of blue energy spiraled around it. The slijah came crashing down onto the platform and slid until it ran into a parked craft. The two ships exploded and the Drej fighter was enveloped in flames.

"Love ya, honey!" Cale said as he quickly kissed Akima.

"Okay, people, let's move!" Korso yelled like a drill instructor as he ran by with the beacon in hand. All four of them started their jet-packs and flew upward, with the Drej speeding intently toward them. They started on their way back to the Valkyrie, racing in between buildings and other high streets. The three remaining fighters came hurtling forward after them.

The group was led by Korso, followed by Stith, then Cale and Akima. The structures flew by while wind whipped over them as they raced at speeds close to two-hundred and fifty miles per hour. No matter how fast they went though, the Drej seemed to stay right on their tail.

Cale rolled over and took out his pistol again. The Drej fighters scrunched close together for the buildings on either side were becoming less remote. Cale took his laser sight, which was a blur as well, and aimed it before the slijah on the far right. "Eat this!" he said as he squeezed the trigger, sending a green blast of plasma at it. The fighter's right wing blew off as his shot hit it. The fighter careened out of control and knocked into the slijah on its left, sending both of them into the side of the building. Glass erupted from the structure while fire and blue energy streamed from it.

The only Drej fighter sped up as his comrades fell around him. He seemed enraged by their deaths and fired repeatedly as Cale and Akima flew downward toward the street. The slijah followed them. "What are they doing?!" Korso asked Stith as they slowed to watch to two. 

"Got me." Stith replied.

"Hurry up, Akima!" Cale yelled as they were weaving in between cars on the street. The fighter shot intently, hitting cars and sending them exploding into the air. Cale and Akima flew just above the cars with the wind break from them slightly disturbing their flight. The cars seemed like blurred ribbons as they shot overhead with the Drej fighter firing after them. 

"We're not shaking 'im! Follow me!" Cale yelled as Akima followed and sped with him upward again the Drej fighter fired once as Cale and Akima flew beside a building. The blast missed them, but caused an explosion on the side of the building which made Akima lose control. Her jet-pack turned off and she began to fall, screaming. Just then, Stith fired a shot at the slijah and blew it up.

"Akima!!!" Cale yelled as he turned vertically down and sped after her. She tried grasping for anything that would have been in her way, but she had fallen away from the building. She pushed the buttons on the analogs of the jet-pack, but it just gave her a buzzing sound.

"Cale! My pack won't start!" she screamed as Cale came falling after her. Tracks of lights seemingly fell upward as they plummeted down. Cale came nearer and nearer to her with each passing second. She closed her eyes and prepared for death. They were deafened by the wind that broke over their ears.

"I've almost got you!" Cale yelled to her as she fell. He grew nearer and nearer until finally he was within arm's reach. He flew underneath her and held his arms out forklift style as she fell into his arms. "Akima, it's okay; you're safe now." Cale whispered as he levitated upward while carrying her. Akima opened her eyes and looked around.

"Oh, Cale, I'm never going to put myself in harm's way again!" Akima pleaded.

"Don't worry, I always knew I was falling for you." Cale said and smiled, still levitating upward.

"Oh, Cale," Akima wooed as she leaned her head forward and locked Cale in a kiss. Cale flew a little faster as she held his head close to her. They both closed their eyes and lost track of what had happened. The two floated upward and stopped in front of Korso and Stith who were stationary in the air. Stith was awed and Koso was cracking a smile as they slowly spun before them.

Korso cleared his throat which startled them and they looked up at him. "Would you mind a more thorough examination back on the ship?" Korso asked with one eyebrow raised and a sly smile. They turned their heads from Korso back to each other.

"Love to." Cale replied as he looked deeply into her eyes. She giggled at his response as she had her arms around his neck. 

"Come on, let's get out of here." Akima said as the four started their flight back to the Valkyrie.

_____________________________________________________________________

"Let's get airborne!" Korso exclaimed as he stepped up the stairs that led to the pilot's seat. Stith walked up to the engines controls and turned them on. Gune came lumbering in and sat down at his station. "Gune, can you plug this into the navigation computer?" Korso asked as he threw Gune the beacon.

"Immediately, captain." Gune replied as he fumbled around to catch the beacon. He eventually caught it and took it over and plugged it in. 

The Valkyrie began its ascent into the dark sky. The engines rumbled as the purplish-gray steel reflected the water's ripples underneath it. The Valkyrie turned in the favored direction and went into hyperspace.


	12. Gianni

****

Chapter 12-Gianni

"Where are they going now!?" Lehedihir ranted as he stormed about on the Drej ship. Tigaj and Molalah were with him, watching the Valkyrie as it sped toward its undetermined destination. They were using the same tactic to follow them as before.

"Patience, Lehedihir," Molalah tamed, "I'm sure it will not be too much longer. Will it not be worth the wait once they find it?"

"I suppose you are correct," Lehedihir replied as he began to pace before them, "but I cannot wait much longer. We have already been following them for too many benha." A 'benha' was a Drej unit of time. They had been following the Valkyrie for a little more than two human weeks and to the Drej, that was too long.

"Wait!" Tigaj exclaimed as he raised his hand in front of them. "They are slowing." he quietly said as he walked closer to the window.

_____________________________________________________________________

"There it is!" Korso exclaimed as he stepped up onto the pilot's platform. Cale followed behind him and stood next to him. The Valkyrie began to slow down to near stopping as it approached what lay before it.

It was Gianni! The space station was built into a small asteroid that had large, wells underneath which gave it gravity. There were three platforms around the sides that protruded out. On and underneath these platforms were heavy laser cannons, twelve on each. Below these platforms was a docking tube that came from the three directions. The top of it was most of the station. It was like a large dome with lights all around it and a window here or there. The station was dark and looked old and decrepit as pieces of metal were bent and hanging off.

"Would you look at that." Korso said with amazement. There really wasn't anything amazing about the outpost, but it was good to see it after their long trip. Korso had his fists resting on his hips like usual while Cale stood there with his hands in his pockets. Akima came in and saw the two standing there. She walked up the steps that led to the bridge and then up the steps that led to the pilot's platform.

"What are you guys look- Oh!" she began, but then saw Gianni. "Is that it?" she asked, stroking her round belly.

"Yep, Gianni." Korso answered as he looked it over.

"The lights are still on," Cale announced as he pointed all over the station, "at least they still have power." Cale turned to his wife and stood close behind with his arms wrapped around her. "If the station still has power, how come Kronos lost contact with them?" he added.

"I don't know," Korso quietly replied, "somethin' musta happened."

"But what is what I'm worried about." Akima said to his reply.

Korso scowled, thinking of what might have happened. He began to walk down the steps, leaving Cale and Akima there, and began walking out of the bridge. "Cale, you come with me." Korso said as he stopped before the door and looked up at them. Cale gazed at Akima as she turned her head to see him. He then led her down the stairs and followed Korso with her at his side.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale, Korso, and Gune stood wearing spacesuits in the air lock. Stith and Akima stood outside the airlock, but had the door between the two open for now. The suits they were wearing had jet-packs on them in case of no gravity. They were gray and had translucent, teal kleersteel helmets that went down to their waists. Kleersteel was a product that was transparent steel which made it like a strong, thin sheet of glass. Gune jumped around in his suit as they stood there. "I go on mission!" he said as he was ecstatically celebrating getting out of the ship for a while.

"Stith, I would appreciate it if you watched over Akima for me. She tries to do things she's in no condition to do." Cale said from inside his suit. He was wearing his plasma shotgun on his side.

"Of course, I'd be happy to." Stith replied.

"You guys watch out for the Drej, we'll keep in touch." Korso added.

"Right, I'll try to shoot any with what I have." Stith said. With that, Korso closed the airlock door by pressing a button. Gune was still jumping around clapping, ready to go. They'd decided to take him along just in case they might run across anything strange. Korso nodded to Cale who nodded back and pressed the second airlock button. The door slowly arose as stale, dead air sucked that which was in the Valkyrie into it. It made a hissing sound as the air rushed out and the door opened.

Cale led by taking the first pioneering step into the station. His foot slowly came down onto the floor and then he went to go take another step. No sooner did he take his second foot off did he slip inside. His foot left the ground and he began floating. "Whoa!" Cale said, floating in front of them. He grasped around, trying to find something to grab hold of.

"Must be that the artificial gravity wells are turned off." Korso assumed while Cale floated to a nearby wall and held onto a pipe that ran vertically down the wall. 

"Wish I would have known that sooner!" Cale sarcastically replied. He steadied himself and began floating toward a door at the end of the docking tube. There was a strip of lights on the corners of the tube that turned on and off in such a way that they appeared to be moving toward the door.

"Wee! Ha ha ha!" Gune cried as he gained up momentum and shot out into the tube. Once he was in the tube, he began swimming, dog paddle, toward Cale who was by the door. Korso lightly shoved himself out and closed the Valkyrie door behind him. With it closed, he shoved off of the door and began floating, arms out, toward Cale as well.

"Can ya get it open?" Korso asked, floating up next to Cale and stopping by his side. Gune was busy adhering to the ceiling, taking in all the fun of floating.

"Maybe." Cale answered, looking around to find the button that activated the gigantic door. He found a square, yellow button on the right side of the door and pressed it. With loud booming noises, it slowly opened. The door opened by splitting into four, large triangles, one above, one below, and two on each side. It clanged to a halt as it opened all the way and sank into the walls. "There you go."

Inside were several white blobs. They stretched out and constricted to move forward. They had no eyes, ears, noses, or even a mouth. It was a thick, slimy white animal that was small, round and fluid. "What the-" Cale began, seeing these floating around.

Gune floated inside and stopped in front of one. He studied it carefully. His large, binocular-like eyes took in every aspect of the formless creature. Gune gasped as he looked at it and held it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." he stuttered. The slime began sticking to him and he began wiping it off.

"Until we know what they do, everybody stays away from 'em." Korso ordered as he floated inside along with Cale. Korso spotted a map of the station on the farthest wall and swam over to it. It was a hole in the wall that produced a holographic layout of the entire station. Korso looked it over carefully and read the labels to the rooms.

"Where do we go now?" Cale inquired as he floated next to Korso.

"I would start looking in storage, they supposedly have lots of alien artifacts in there and quite a few prisoner's cells nearby." Korso pointed in the direction that led to the storage rooms as he held on to the walls. There was another door that was already opened and they continued on their way through it. The inside of the station was dark, gloomy, and uninviting. It, even though it was human, somehow seemed alien. The inside lights were damaged and some were loose. The white blobs were everywhere. In some places they became chokingly close.

Cale led the way as Korso told him where to go. He came into a circular room with a domed ceiling. Inside were a myriad of the white creatures as well as human bodies floating around the room. "My God!" Cale exclaimed as he crept into the room. He decided to turn on his magnetic boots so he might be able to walk around. Korso copied him and stood there while Gune continued to hold on to the wall. 

Cale slowly approached one body in a white lab coat. It wasn't facing him and was hovering upside down above the floor. Cale stopped before it and swallowed. He grabbed the side of the human. The skin seemed hard and cracking as he touched it. The body turned around with Cale's shove and revealed the man's face. It was nearly a skull with some loose, pale skin hanging off. His hair was thin and stiff. The appearance was so ghastly that it made Cale shutter. "They're... dry." Cale announced quietly as he turned toward Korso.

"What do you mean they're dry?" he asked. 

"They're just a bunch of bones and dead skin. They have no bodily liquid whatsoever." Cale stepped back and looked over the man again. He noticed that there were white blobs attached to him. "The puddies did this," Cale stated, going back to them, "they drink your flesh."

"Hmm, that would be a good reason why Kronos lost contact with the station's power still on." Korso added. "Okay, make sure you don't get one in your suit. I don't want it takin' anybody."

Then there was a loud crash and the ground shook. Gune jumped around in panic as it went on. It was a loud booming sound that echoed down the hallway. Then, everything was silent and still. "That couldn't have been good." Cale stated, looking around the room as the blobs fled around the room.

"Captain!" Korso's intercom buzzed. It was the sound of Stith's voice.

"What is it, Stith?" Korso quickly asked.

_____________________________________________________________________

Akima and Stith both stood on the bridge. Stith was at the communications array, which they had Gune fix while they were on D'amara. "We've got several Drej off of the port bow, Captain!" Stith yelled as a Drej slijah raced past the cockpit window. The Drej battleship was off in the distance and had several slijah docking with it. Some stingers shot their own craft in order that they might dock. They swarmed around the station, eager to get in. None of them fired on the Valkyrie for they all wanted to get to the Orb. 

"This isn't good!" Akima said, trying to turn on the laser cannons, but they were fried by the New Technology that the Drej had shot at them back at the Qu'ut Minor blockade. "There's nothing we can do, Stith! We're taking hits! Tell them to hurry up!"

"Hey, listen," Stith said while on the communicator, "You guys had better get that Orb and get out 'cause they're comin' in for ya!" 

_____________________________________________________________________

"I copy. We'll hustle!" Korso replied. "Move, move, move." Korso ordered as they all began running as fast as they could in the suits. Bodies began floating faster around the room as they all ran out and headed for the storage rooms. The blobs scurried about as Cale, Korso, and Gune rushed out, bumping into them. They could hear the screams of the slijah as they zoomed around outside.

"That's it!" Korso said, pointing to a door he had previously seen on the holographic map. They both turned off their magnetic boots and pushed themselves toward the door. They floated into the door; Gune kept looking around curiously.

Inside was a long, wide hallway that curved off to the left that made it in the shape of a crescent with a grated floor. The ceiling was arched over and along the walls were numerous doors. Each one was brown, as well as the rest of the station, and large. There was another door like the one they'd entered from on the opposite side of the hall. "Whoa!" Cale expounded, looking at the seemingly endless amount of cells.

Gune curiously looked over a computer screen that was built into the side of the wall. On the left of it was a human hand, without a body, that held a security pass inside a slot. It appeared as though whoever used it last, died during a card swipe and his arm broke off. The computer screen glowed blue and Gune was looking at all of the touch-screen buttons that were on it. One read, 'LOCK CELL #", and another read, 'OPEN CELL #', but the one that caught his attention was the one that said, 'OPEN ALL'. Gune slowly stretched out his finger and cautiously led it to the button. He pressed it and gasped when all the cell doors flung open with a loud clang.

"It's all right, Gune. Chill." Cale said, trying to calm him down.

There was a blue light that shone out one of the doors. It glowed more brightly than any other light they had seen. A low buzzing sound could be heard coming from it. "Look!" Korso said, pointing toward the shining, buzzing light. Cale looked up to see it and was excited.

"Is that-?" Cale began.

"Only one way to find out." Korso answered. He held Cale's arm as they floated toward the light. It was quite a ways down the hallway, about halfway when they reached it. They stopped before the door and crept closer to it and looked in. Gune came up behind them and peeked in between the two.

"Oh my- wow!" Cale said, standing there next to Korso. They were all astonished. Before them levitated a blue sphere that hummed and buzzed with energy. It was about the size of a soccer ball and had an aura of white light around it. Energy coursed from it and went into the walls and floor as it maintained itself there. The sphere itself swirled with bluish, white sparks that pulsated in the middle. It was the third and only surviving Drej Orb! They had found it!

Their amazement was disrupted by a laser blast that zoomed over their heads. Gune screamed and ran on all fours into a cell opposite them. Cale and Korso were startled as they looked to see Tigaj, Lehedihir, and Molalah, floating in the doorway. Lehedihir floated around behind the other two, unarmed. Molalah had a gun that fired the New Technology from it. It was a large, blue gun. It required holding it with both hands as it was long and top heavy, but in zero gravity, it was weightless. On top of it was a large, oval-shaped tank that hung over in front. Tigaj held his firearm up to them and said something in Drej.

"I would get away from that if I were you." Tigaj said.


	13. From Bad to Worse

****

Chapter 13- From Bad to Worse

There stood a stalemate. The three Drej stared at them, giving them the opportunity to move. Korso and Cale froze in their tracks while Gune wasn't anywhere to be found. Korso had his hands up to show he wasn't reaching for his arms. Neither one firing on the other. "Cale, get behind me. I got an idea." Korso whispered to Cale, pushing Cale behind himself. Cale obeyed. The Drej floated in the doorway, still holding their weapons up against them. "When I jump out of the way you open fire, got it?" Korso added. Cale took his shot gun off its sling and pumped it. Tigaj began to get curious as he heard the cocking of his shotgun.

Tigaj took aim with his pistol and fired for Korso. The blue blast screamed down the hall, toward them. Korso gasped as he jumped to the right, out of the way. The blue plasma tore through Cale's space suit and gas began coming out. It was his oxygen supply! "Aaahhh!" Cale yelled as he flew back and hit the wall with an 'ooph!'. There was a hissing sound coming from his suit.

"Cale! You Okay?!" Korso said from a cell that he'd taken cover in. He pulled out his pistol and leaned out from behind the wall to shoot at the Drej. The kick from his gun helped him take cover again.

"Yeah, I'm all right. I'm all right. I should probably get this suit off. It don't do me no good with a hole in it." Cale replied, taking off his gloves. They were large, thick gloves that were colored black. They had metallic cuffs that allowed them to attach to the metallic 'sleeve' of the space suit. Another shot blasted the wall beside Cale. Even more Drej were pouring into the other end of the storage room. There were about eight altogether.

Cale dove even deeper into the cell as they cautiously shot and floated around the room. "Uh, little help over here!" said he. He held his plasma shotgun, trigger in right hand, pump in the left. Cale crept up to the cover of the cell and peeked out. A couple of blue shards of plasma whizzed by his head as he ducked back into his uncertain sanctuary. He gained up his courage and jumped out, hovering across the hall just a few inches above the ground. Pow! He shot and pumped, killing one Drej who flew backward to the wall and disappeared. He shot again, nicking the arm of one Drej taking cover behind an empty gas can that he held onto and floated around with. The drone dropped the can as he held his arm and slowly spun from the blast. Cale fired once more and finished him off.

Korso hid behind a wall and leaned out a few times, hoping that they, Tigaj, Molalah, and Lehedihir, would be open to taking hits. Molalah spotted Cale rather carelessly floating around in the middle of the hallway and figured that it was a perfect surprise shot. He aimed his massive gun at the mortal youth and fired his weapon. He was thrown back into the wall with the loud booming noise that it had. The blast echoed as it raced down the hallway, heading for Cale. It struck Cale in the back and strung his arms out as the shot sent him flying forward. Blue ribbons of energy surrounded him and sank into his suit. Cale loudly groaned in pain as the energy went in bolts into his eyes, mouth, and even through his skin. He floated unconscious with his appendages limply hovering around.

Lehedihir quickly jumped out into the room with both arms out and shot through the air into a nearby cell that was opposite Korso. Korso didn't care to notice him, for he was, again, unarmed. He kept his attention on Tigaj and Molalah. Lehedihir looked around for the Orb it was still in the cell, a ways further. Molalah jumped out into the hallway as well as soon as Korso bucked behind the wall from one of Tigaj's shots. Tigaj saw his attempt at getting the Orb before him, so he shot Molalah. He screamed as his friend vaporized his entire body. He eventually burned up and his energy went away. "No you don't!" Tigaj expounded at his 'friend's' death.

Cale awoke from his unconsciousness with Drej all around him, but firing at Korso and Tigaj. He was startled to see his company and pulled his shotgun forward and aimed it at them. He couldn't fire, though, he saw no reason to as the Drej were firing on themselves! They killed their companions in order that they might get the Orb. Cale smirked at their betrayal of one another and floated toward Korso. "I took a hit back there." Cale announced to him.

"Are you hurt?" Korso asked.

"I'm fine. I don't understand it. I felt a little pain, but altogether it didn't hurt me." he explained. Korso shrugged and turned back to Tigaj, who had advanced out into the room. Tigaj floated and took cover a short way's away from him, in another, adjacent cell. He jumped out, shooting at the two of them, and in the direction of the Orb. Lehedihir took notice of this and leaped out with his hands stretched and tackled him in the air.

"What are you doing?! Do you not know that I will get the Orb?!" Tigaj yelled as he struggled to point his gun at Lehedihir's head. Lehedihir combated Tigaj's hand by holding it away from him. They floated in the air, toward the Orb, both fighting off each other's movements. 

"I'm... not... going... to let... you... win!" Lehedihir wheezed as he took both of his hands and overpowered Tigaj's. Tigaj took his free hand and punched Lehedihir's head. He winced at his blow and tore the gun away from Tigaj.

"You can't be Queen, it can't happen." Tigaj said to Lehedihir's face.

"Yes, whatever." he replied. Lehedihir head butted him and shot the gun. It ripped through Tigaj's thick, bulky body and pierced the roof as well. He jolted back and flew upward and bounced off the ceiling. Lehedihir threw the gun and scrambled as fast as he could toward the Orb. Tigaj glanced at himself, he was still alive, and sent him self off the ceiling toward Lehedihir. Lehedihir reached the cell where the Orb was and stretched out his arm to receive it. His face lit up as he grew closer to it, but then he felt a strong tug on his foot to see that Tigaj was still fighting.

"Let's just shoot 'em!" Cale suggested. Korso looked at the two, struggling in the air. They looked like two boys wrestling over a toy in a daycare center.

"Amen to that." Korso replied. They pointed their guns at them. Korso with his pistol and Cale with his shotgun. Cale shot slightly before Korso, and hit Tigaj. Lehedihir was thrown from that blast into the cell where the Orb was. Korso's shot missed them both because Cale's threw them in different directions. Tigaj hit a wall in a cell and lay there, near death. He was missing his right arm and had several holes in him all over the place. He lay silent with his head resting on the wall with his body on the floor.

Lehedihir hit the wall inside the cell with the Orb. He was a little confused for he had flown in too fast. He looked around and realized where he was. The Orb was sitting directly in front of him. Lehedihir jumped up from his seated position and flew into it and held it with both of his hands. "It's mine!" he cried. Cale and Korso rushed to the entrance of the room to see Lehedihir holding on to the Orb.

"What's going on?" Cale asked. Korso paused and took in what he saw. He'd never seen this happen before.

"He's becoming a Queen." he replied quite blankly. Lehedihir brought his face close to the Orb. He stopped before it and his face widened. After that he sent the Orb into the void of his face. His eyes disappeared as the ball of energy got smaller and went into his head. Lehedihir's sapphire eyes returned once the Orb was in his neck. Then, a wave of energy burst out from him sent Cale and Korso back due to the immense power. The room became white, Cale and Korso squinted their eyes because of its brightness. Lehedihir's arms became longer and his legs separated into four, long, pointed stilt-like legs that every Queen has. The back legs came off of the front legs somewhere near the back. His neck became long and went upward and then curled down like a Queen's crest. His face turned outward and his cheeks enlarged. 

"Ahh, I am Queen, keeper of the Orb, shaper of the Will!" she yelled with a sense of evil joy. Lehedihir was now a Queen. She stood there, too large for the room she was in. Lehedihir saw Cale and Korso on the floor with their guns. She took her arms and threw them at the wall, breaking it down. Debris flew all over the place as she came bursting through the wall. She came out with each step shaking the floor. Lehedihir towered over the two of them. She knelt down before them and let out a horrific, high pitch scream. It was obviously like a battle cry as she had her arms spread and ready to fight.

Korso knew the Queen was way too big to combat here, so he sat up beside Cale and made ready his departure. "We gotta get out of here!" Korso shouted to Cale as he grabbed his shoulder and led his toward the door. Lehedihir thrust his hand into the spot where they were sitting, crunching the metal of the walls. They floated quickly out the door of the storage room and out as Lehedihir came bursting through the wall that the door was on. The fragments of the wall spread wildly around as the zero gravity allowed them to roam freely, crashing into walls.

The white blobs were rapidly swimming about the room as Cale and Korso came flying swiftly through them. The Queen was still lumbering about behind them. Cale used his shotgun to thrust him down the hallway that led to the docking bay. Then, he felt a sharp stinging feeling from inside his suit. The epicenter of the pain at around his left hip. "Aghh!" Cale bellowed, tucking his waist and holding his hurt hip.

"What is it?" Korso quickly asked, turning to Cale's aid.

"There's a pain in my side!" Cale screeched in pain, pointing to his side.

"Let me see!" Korso said, pulling Cale's hand away from his suit. Korso saw the hole from the laser blast in the side of his suit. It had black singe marks around it as it was hollow. He peered inside the gaping hole and saw a white fluid. Cale continued to holler as it stung him even greater every minute. "I think you've got one of those puddies in your suit!" Korso looked back at the Queen, who was stuck trying to get through a door. "We need to get this thing off, now!" he yelled, as the Queen pounded on the impeding frame.

"Better make it quick!" Cale groaned as he held himself. Cale unbuckled the clips of his massive helmet and tore it from his suit. Then he unclipped the belt that held his two halves of the suit together. Korso lifted the top off as Cale slipped his arms out of the arms of the suit. He then shook off the legs of the suit. Cale was wearing a black, sleeveless shirt and had brown pants on with bare feet.

On Cale's side stuck one of the white blobs. It had lifted up the side of his shirt and attached itself to his skin. Cale held up his arms and looked at himself to see the white blob sucking his life away. It was pulling Cale's bodily fluid through his skin! "Holy God!" he exclaimed as he beheld the malignant thing. He reached for it to rip it off, but he was afraid to touch it. He pulled his hands away from it before he grabbed it. "What do we do?!" Cale yelled, looking back at the Queen who was beginning to free herself from the door.

"Uh, uh, hold still!" Korso said, thinking quickly.

"Why? What are you going to do?!" Cale questioned. Korso cocked his pistol and aimed it at the blob. "Oh, no!" Cale said, not trusting Korso.

"Hold still!" Korso reassured.

"You really think you're gonna be able to shoot a piece of liquid that's eating away at me off my body?!" Cale whimpered.

"Be calm!" Korso said. He held the pistol with both hands and squeezed the trigger. Cale closed his eyes as the green plasma swept by him and burned the pale carnivore from him. Cale opened his eyes and checked his side, it appeared all normal. Cale sighed with relief as he touched his side. It was red and the skin was tender. "We gotta go!" Korso shouted and led Cale out of the room. Lehedihir screamed in a fit of rage as they hurried out of the room. She freed herself from the door and sent herself into the door that was closing. It shut just before she made it. They closed the door behind them to leave the Queen in that room.

"Hey, wait a minute. Where's Gune?" Cale asked, floating outside of his space suit with Korso toward the docking bay. 

"Don't know," Korso replied. Just then they heard a scream coming from the docking tube. They hurried and closed the large docking tube door. It boomed as the four corners came out of the walls and locked in the center with a loud clang. They turned to see Gune pounding on the Valkyrie door. Space as well as the rest of the Valkyrie was visible from the inside of the tube.

"Look," Cale pointed, "There he is." They floated over to him and stopped just behind him. Gune continued to pound with balled fists on the door and screeched. 

"What's the problem, Gune?" Korso asked, a little confused and yet, entertained. He let out a silent chuckle as he watched him beat the door.

"I want in! I want in!" he squawked as he floated by it. 

"Stith, open the air lock." Korso said as he spoke into the com on his wrist.

"Copy that." Stith's voice said from the speaker on his wrist as the door opened from bottom to top. Gune smiled and went in. Korso and Cale followed.

_____________________________________________________________________

The Queen, Lehedihir, stayed in the room she'd been locked in by Cale and Korso. By using her deep-space telepathy, she called on several drones to free her from the constrictive space station. They eventually arrived and took her in a large craft to the battleship where they headed back to their star. She was already planning a retaliation on New Earth.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale sat on his bed with his wife, Akima sitting by his side. He had his head resting upon the wall the bed was by as she rested her head on his shoulder. He had his muscular arm wrapped around her and kept her close to himself. "What did the station look like?" Akima asked as she cuddled there with him. She stroked the roundness of her belly that held their child in care.

"It was dark, gloomy." Cale began, "Everything was old and corroded, but there were these white things that would suck a person dry. We think that's the reason why Kronos lost contact with the it."

"Really?" Akima asked, almost in disbelief.

"Yeah, I had one stuck on me. Korso ended up shooting it off." Cale explained.

"Where?" she asked, sitting up from the wall to check him over.

"Right there," Cale answered as he pulled up the side of his shirt, "It started sucking right there." Akima leaned over him to get a better look at the bruised skin. Some of Cale's veins were visible from the creature.

"My God, Cale! Are you all right?" she expressed with concern. It was a little unsettling to look upon his tortured flesh.

"I'll be fine." he replied as he let down his shirt and held her again. She went back into her position and leaned on his shoulder once again. It was quiet just then, as they sat together. Nobody was bothering them, but then Akima broke the silence.

"We have a bigger job to do now that the Drej have a Queen."


	14. The Light

****

Chapter 14- The Light

Cale stood in an empty room. There was black surrounding him. It was a deep, dark void that one could figuratively touch. Cale turned around in confusion, seeing nothing but the night. There wasn't any floor or ceiling. It was as if he was standing on night itself. He ran into the dark, looking around helplessly for anything that could lead him out. He ran faster and faster until he tripped and fell over his feet. He hit the ground that was not there, violently. Stumbling to his feet, he gained composure of himself and stood up.

Cale paused as he heard a sound and saw a familiar, blue glow surrounding him. The buzzing noise was coming from behind. He slowly turned around, head first, and faced the magnificent glow. It was a deep blue that permeated the darkness in strings of electricity. In the center of the dim glow was a blue, round object. It appeared to be very similar to the Orb, but this wasn't it. It seemed, somehow, different, as if it wasn't a tangible object.

Cale walked slowly toward it, taking caution with every step. He gazed into the dim light blankly and yet, he was amused by it. As he crept closer, the dim light began to transform his body into shades of blue. The light reflected off of his eyes as he gazed deeply into it. He seemed mesmerized by it, as if it had consumed his mind. He grew closer to it and held out his hand, slowly, with his fingers extended. He held it out as far as his arm could reach.

A blue bolt came out and reached out to his hand. It searched around and explored his hand's anatomy as it stretched out from the light. The blue string of power began to go into his hand. The hairs on Cale's arm stood on end as the energy merged into him. It was warm and tinkled his fingers like one of the electricity balls that they used to sell in earth shops.

As Cale pulled his hand away from it, a low whispering voice could be heard. "Cale..." the voice called. He looked around in search of an origin for the noise, but all around was night. The blue ball illuminated the section where he was, but this place didn't seem to have sections; it was all dark. When no origin for the voice was found he gazed back at the Orb. Cale's lips quivered as he saw the light. He crept still closer to it, making slow steps.

He reached out again to touch the ball of light itself. This time, no bolt surged into him. As he reached out with his hand, the light stayed still, almost welcoming him. He touched the blue spectacle and it engulfed his hand. Then, he felt a tugging coming from the ball and it began to suck him forward. Cale screamed as he tried to dig his heels into the nothing of a floor, but it still drug him into it. His forearm was already inside the light and it continued up to his shoulder. He pulled on his arm with his other to try and free it from the light, but before he knew it, he was completely in. He couldn't move and it stung him all over, like a thousand knives ripping deep into his flesh. Cale writhed, screaming in total torment for his life.

Cale sat up and screamed at the top of his lungs. "Cale!" a voice came. He continued with his painful hollering until he felt a pillow hit his face. The softness of it was a comfort, even if it hit him in the face. "Cale!" Akima yelled, "are you all right?" She started caressing his back as he sat up, panting from his dream. "Are you okay?" she asked again. Cale, now becoming calm, wiped the sweat from his face and turned to Akima.

"Yeah. I- I'm fine." he replied with a sigh. She sat up next to him in a white nightgown. It was really just a large shirt, but it covered her while the baby grew inside.

"You sure, baby? You look like you've seen a ghost or something." Akima asked, still caressing him, trying to give him comfort and warmth. "Was it a bad dream?" she whispered.

"I... I don't know. It seemed too real, too smart." Cale quietly replied. "I felt... alone... and yet, in the midst of evil itself."

"It's all right, dear, it's all right." Akima hushed as she allowed Cale to rest his head on her shoulder. She looked into his eyes, searching for fear. His light, hazel eyes grew to be like black marbles in the dark. As she looked, she noticed something. Something she didn't notice from far away. As Akima gazed into his eyes, there was a small, blue glistening in the pupil of his eye. It was bright against the darkness, but it was only a speck. "Come on, honey, it's time to sleep again." Akima said as she held him and laid him back beside her that he might get rest.

_____________________________________________________________________

It was about midday according to earth time. The chronometer read 13:24, or 1:24 p.m. Korso was with Gune in the navigation. The Valkyrie was on it's way back to New Earth as they were busy talking about building a weapon to combat the Drej. Gune sat at his table with several of his tools on the it as Korso stood over him, leaning on the edge of it. Gune had a blueprint that he was drawing before him as Korso discussed the characteristics of what they'd need. Cale came in to see what they were up to.

"It needs to be as big as you can get it. We are talking about a Drej mothership, here." Korso explained as he pointed to a section on the blueprint. Cale walked up behind them and surveyed the table.

"Whatcha doin'?" he asked as he stood beside Korso.

"Designing a bomb. We're deciding to use EMP since it hurts the Drej and not us." Korso said as he pointed at the design. It was a cylindrical object that had a picture of an EMP generator on it. "I'm letting Gune use one of my EMP grenades so he can copy them into a larger scale model. Hopefully, it will be big enough to take out a Drej mother ship."

"Really? Sort of like an EMP nuke?" Cale asked.

"Sort of. We thought that EMP was the best choice since biological weapons don't work on them and explosives aren't destructive enough." Korso explained.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll be seeing you around." Cale said as he left the room.

_____________________________________________________________________

Later on in the day, Gune was busy working away at building the EMP bomb. He had it basically assembled. It was a spherical generator that was held by frames of metal. It was very raw, as in it didn't have a shell yet, or any buttons to turn it on. Gune had both hands on the model as he checked to make sure it was supported correctly. "I put the magnification shield over the generator and that should-" Gune mumbled to himself. He held the generator close to him that he might see every little detail with his binocular-like eyes. He was inspecting it circumspectly when Cale once again came into the room.

He came up and crouched down next to Gune while resting his elbows on his knees. "How's it comin'?" Cale asked, the small, blue light still in his eyes. 

"It is coming along as planned." Gune answered without taking his concentration off of the weapon for a second. He squinted as he brought it close to his face. Cale nodded and stood up and walked around the weapon that was built so far. He stepped behind Gune, who still didn't seem to notice that he was there. Gune kept on muttering as he worked whole heartily on the project.

Then, Cale paused. His eyes grew large and his expression blank as he froze. The blue light in his eyes seemed to grow. From deep down, he could hear a voice. It was raspy and quiet, yet it caught his attention. "That weapon will destroy us," the voice whispered, "it must not be built." The blue light began growing inside his pupils until, all black of it was consumed. Cale felt numb, as if his body was dead and yet his mind were still alive.

Cale screamed as he picked up Gune, who was heavy enough, and threw him into the wall. Gune screeched as he flew through the air and hit the wall violently. He fell to the floor with a thud once it had stopped him. Gune whimpered as he pulled himself up onto his knees. "Wha-?" Gune said as he held his aching head and was baffled by Cale's intentions for the throw.

Cale picked up the weapon and threw it into the wall as well. Gune became frightened when the blue light came glowing like flashlights out of Cale's two eyes. He yelled in a fit of rage as he walked toward Gune. Gune sat by the wall and assumed the fetal position, hoping Cale wouldn't hurt him further.

"Don't build any more weapons against the Drej!" Cale yelled as he punched Gune's shoulder. His voice sounded as if there were multiple people talking through him. It was still Cale's voice, but several different tones at the same time. Cale ripped Gune off the floor and stood him up. He flung Gune to his side and kicked his hip, sending Gune crashing on the floor. "Don't do that!" Cale yelled again.

Korso came running in with Stith and Akima following him. They were all surprised to see the situation that was taking place. "Cale, what are you doing?!" Korso asked as he grabbed Cale on the shoulder. Cale quickly turned around and gave Korso an uppercut. Korso fell back near Stith and Akima from the blow and moaned as he held his stomach.

"I'll take care of him!" Stith announced, now getting angered at Cale's blind rage. She approached Cale and grumbled in a threatening way as she held her fists clenched, ready to go. Stith sent her long leg at Cale in a kick, but ended up missing him as he ducked below. Her mighty kick dented the metal wall that was behind him. Cale sat on the floor beneath her large leg and grabbed it to pull himself up. Stith thrust her left fist forward and struck Cale on the face. Cale stumbled back and crashed into the holographic map.

His eyes grew brighter with an evil glow as his eyes became completely white. He gathered himself and gave a battle cry as he ran forward into Stith. She was sent back from his assault and fell on Gune's table. He ran to Stith and raised his fisted quite barbarously when he felt something restraining him. He turned his head to see Akima holding his hands, trying to keep him from hurting Stith. "Cale, please, don't." she cried, struggling to keep him under control.

"Akima," Cale's now multiple voices said, "I don't want to hurt you, for I have plans for you." She was taken back by the sound of his voices and let go of his arms. "That's what I thought." he added, turning around to finish off Stith. He was surprised to see that she had her legs constricted and facing him.

"Take this!" she said as she sent both monstrous feet into his face. Cale gasped as he was thrown back and hit the wall. He stayed on his feet though and stumbled to try and keep his balance. With that, he fell to one knee and crashed onto the floor unconscious, face down.

"Lock him up before he hurts anybody else." Korso groaned as he stood from the floor. He held his chest that Cale had hit so hard, too hard for his strength.

"I'll take care of it." Stith said, picking a limp Cale up from the floor and carrying him over her shoulder.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale found himself in a small room. He noticed that it was his own room, the one he'd stayed in while searching for the Titan. He was laying on the bottom bunk of the two beds that were embedded in the wall. He sat up and let his legs over the side. The blue light was still in his eyes. It only went away when he blinked. He stood up and walked toward the door. When he put both hands on the wheel, he began turning it, but it stuck. It was locked. He groaned as he shook the door, trying to get out.

With no avail, he gave up and went back to the bed. He sat down and rested his head on his hands, which he propped on his knees. Cale sank his face into his hands and blotted out the light from view. Then, he heard a noise. Footsteps were coming from outside. They were close together and grew in volume as they came nearer. "Cale?" a voice came from the outside. Cale matched it to Akima. "Cale? Are you awake?" she asked through the door.

"I am." he replied. She held her face close to the door so Cale would be able to easily hear the sound better. Cale's voices answered monotonously. 

"Why did you hurt Gune like that?" she asked. Cale looked up at the door, almost trying to imagine her standing there.

"I can hear them, Akima, I can hear their voices." Cale responded. He stood and crept closer to the door. "It's the most haunting experience in a person's life, hearing things. It is frightful, but once you get past it, the voices begin talking to you, urging you to do things." Akima was beginning to get worried. Cale didn't have a huge vocabulary, but he was using words in a way she'd never heard him use before. It was as if something, or someone, was speaking through him.

"Cale," Akima began, pausing to recap the last night, "the dream you talked about last night, do you think this has anything to do with it?" She listened intently, waiting for his response, but there was none. Then, Cale spoke up.

"Yes," he whispered. "It was the Drej. They're speaking to me. They made me turn on you." he quietly added.

"Cale, do you still have consciousness?" she quickly asked from his explanation. 

"I am speaking to you out of my own free will. They have showed me what it is like to be one of them. To have that much power." Cale replied. This worried Akima. If he made clear decisions when he hurt Gune, then that meant that it was Cale who tried to hurt them; not the Drej. They had made Cale volunteer as one of their own. "It is so very addicting." Cale added.

Akima grew quiet. She was silently shuddering behind the locked door. He was starting to frighten her. This was incomprehensible to her. Her own husband, now with the Drej? This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He was going to love her and care for her and protect her for the rest of his life, but now all of that seemed remote. "It's the light, Akima, I'm afraid of the light." Cale said.


	15. Like Lovers (Holding On)

****

Chapter 15 - Like Lovers (Holding On)

Akima rushed away from the cell that held Cale, locked in the room. She couldn't believe something like this could happen. In fact, she didn't understand how this could happen. How could the Drej just take over Cale? It was a puzzle she tried to solve, yet she couldn't because she feared for him too much. She made each step with haste, almost as if she were running away from her psychologically captured husband. Akima finally came to Korso's room. She found him sitting there in his chair with a scowl on his face. He appeared as though he were thinking himself.

"May I come in, Captain?" Akima asked, standing with half of her in the door. Korso was startled by her presence and jumped slightly in his seat. He turned his head to her and watched her in the doorway.

"Oh, Akima. Sure, come on in." Korso welcomed. He stood up turned the opposite seat around for her.

"Thanks." she said as she waddled across the room and sat down in the seat he'd prepared. 

"Don't mention it." Korso replied, sitting back down in his own seat. He sat beside her, with both feet on the floor. Akima had a distraught countenance, which had caught Korso's attention. He searched his mind for something comforting to say. "Worried about Cale?" was all he found. She took her focus off of him and looked down.

"Extremely," Akima replied, close to crying. Korso sat forward in his chair and set each elbow on each knee.

"I can't figure out what could have made Cale do something like that." Korso stated with amazement in his voice. "I didn't think he could ever hurt Gune like that."

"When somebody is being driven by something else, he does things he wouldn't normally do." Akima told.

"What do you mean?" Korso asked, just slightly confused.

"When you were greedy, you didn't want anything to stop you from getting rich, even Cale and I. Cale mentioned something about being able to hear the Drej."

"What? What do you mean, 'greedy'?" Korso asked again, this time confused as to what she meant by him being greedy.

"You attacked Cale and I when we found out what you, er... the _other_ Korso was up to." Akima explained as she looked back up at him, pointing to the door they ran out of, almost reenacting it with her finger.

"I wonder why I don't remember that." Korso said with wonder in his voice. He held his chin as he thought. "Oh, anyway, what about Cale and the Drej?" he asked, realizing that he was going off topic. Going off topic sort of helped Akima not think about Cale for a bit.

"He said something about a light that scared him and he also said something about being able to hear the Drej's voices." Akima stated, sighing again. 

"Hmm... That would explain the light coming from his eyes and him having more than one voice. Sounds like the Drej are inspiring him to do these things." Korso suggested. He sat back in his chair and turned toward space.

"I always thought he would be there for me, and for our daughter..." Akima said with sadness in her voice as she stroked her round belly. Korso winced at what she said.

"How much longer until you have that baby, anyway?" Korso asked, sitting back up in his seat.

"Oh, I guess... another month and about a half?" Akima said, guessing. "Stith has been training to be a midwife just in case. She always told me she wanted to see a human birth. I'm gonna let her see mine." she added. Akima was beginning to feel better. Korso was trying to take her mind off of Cale for the moment.

"That's cuttin' it close if we're gonna find some way of turning Cale before that." Korso stated. Akima got up from her seat and began to walk out of the room. She paused halfway and turned back toward him.

"Thanks." she said.

"It's all right." Korso replied with a nod. With that, she turned and left the room. She headed down the hallway to Cale. She wanted to have another word with him.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale sat in his old room, alone all except for the voices of the Drej. He tried to make them go away, but they kept coming back. He could only listen to what they had to say. Above all, he could hear the Queen. Lehedihir was indoctrinating Cale about the Drej lifestyle. He was distracted by a noise coming from outside the door. It grew in volume as it came nearer. The noise stopped just outside the door.

"Cale, are you there?" Akima asked as she held her face close to the door again.

"I am." Cale's many voices replied. The light coming from his eyes grew as he stood and walked toward the door. He stood with a blank expression on his face. It was good for Akima to not be able to see him there. She would have started crying on the spot.

"Cale, do you remember anything?" Akima sorrowfully asked. She was quiet, waiting for him to respond, but he didn't. "Do you remember our wedding?" her shaky voice asked. She was beginning to get worried. "Cale, what about our honey moon? Do you remember that?" Akima turned her back to the door and started crying. She braced herself up against the door and slid her back down until she reached the floor. There was still quiet coming from inside.

"I do," Cale's many voices lowly replied. He broke from his blank stare and his eyes glowed a deeper, darker blue. It was as if his mood determined the brightness of his eyes. When he grew angry, his eyes grew a sharp white color that shamed a flashlight. When he was sad, though, they became more blue. Cale rested his arm on the door and put his forehead up to his arm.

"Our honey moon was great, Cale." Akima said, between tears. Cale's expression became sorrowful and the light from his eyes went out as he closed them.

"Tell me about it. I want you to remind me of what happened those nights." Cale said, trying to remember for himself, but the Drej were consuming his mind.

"We spent one week on the beach." Akima began, starting to stop crying, "You told me that the beach was the most special place for you, and when I asked why, you always told me that it was there that we were engaged. It was there that we were married.

"We made a tent, on the beach. There were rocks and cliffs around us so that we had all the privacy in the world. There wasn't anything that could hurt us, the earth was too new. We sat on a blanket, and watched the night sky. Oh, Cale, it was so beautiful when the light from all of the stars came out at night and made the water glisten. You and I snuggled there, on that blanket, every night.

"Every day we would swim with each other, in the crystal clear water. You enjoyed swimming so much because you told me that it was something you never were able to do while you were growing up. We explored the deep water together, just you and I, we held hands as we swam. I can remember how we could see the bottom. There weren't any fish in the water, or coral or anything. Just the rocks below us, the gray rocks that amused you.

"We loved each other in that week, greatly. There was no other in our lives. I remember the nights after we watched the stars. Cale, you made love to me more than I thought you could. You would kiss me and smile as you gazed deeply into my eyes. You told me how my brown eyes made you crazy and love me more. You held me gently, and caressed my body. I was yours to love... and you did.

"Do you remember that, Cale?" Akima asked as she finished. Cale would have broke out into tears had he been able to without the Drej interfering. He stood, leaning against the door, resting his head on his arm. 

"Yes," Cale replied. He tried to feel his own emotions for Akima, but there was too much in the way. The Drej continued to speak to Cale. They told him to come to them. Akima stopped crying, tears still on her face. She stood up from the floor and turned back toward the door.

Lehedihir, herself, began speaking to Cale. She invaded his mind and pushed out any thoughts he had about anything. "Cale," the voice said, "Know that I am Queen; shaper of the Will, keeper of the Orb. For now on my name shall be, 'Hexajava,' for that is the title of a Queen. Lehedihir means nothing to me now." It rang in Cale's ears as long as she spoke. "Cale," she added, "I will ready your escape. Our New Technology is still within the ship." Cale looked around, trying to figure out how they were going to get him out. Then, the wheel that locked the door began turning. It turned ninety degrees, stopped, and the door slowly swung open.

Akima stood there in the doorway, in disbelief. She thought that Cale had opened the door himself. She slowly stepped away, awestruck, until she backed into the wall behind her. When she reached the wall, she trembled as Cale came stepping out. His eyes glowed a deep blue and he had a blank expression on his face. Cale paused before her and reached out with his hand to gently touch her face. Before his hand met with her, he slowly pulled it away. He turned and ran down the hallway toward the cargo bay.

Akima fell to the floor and wept. She couldn't make a move to go after Cale. This frightened her too greatly. She wasn't scared for her life, no, she was afraid she'd lose her love forever. What seemed to make it even worse was he didn't seem to show any love for her now. The Drej seemed to have made him forgotten. She was left without a husband and without a father for her child.

Cale ran down the hallway that led to the cargo bay, the same hallway Akima had run to meet Cale after his escape from the Drej. He finally reached the cargo bay and he saw in it the Drej stinger that he'd escaped in. He stepped off of the catwalk and down the stairwell toward the stinger. It'd been there ever since. They didn't know when it might come in handy, but now it served the purpose of Cale's getaway. He walked underneath the blue fighter and reached his fingers up into the hull of the ship. He spread the energy around himself and was consumed by it.

Cale sat there in the seat, with both hands on the controls of the slijah. The cargo bay door seemed to open all its own. The Queen must have opened that too. He dropped the Drej fighter out of the bay and into space. The Valkyrie sped off, not knowing of what he'd done. Cale steered the fighter in the appropriate direction as the Queen told him. He then flew off to meet with the Drej ship.

_____________________________________________________________________

Akima stayed on the floor, sobbing greatly. Stith came around the corner because she'd heard a noise coming from around where Cale was held. Stith saw Cale's door open and Akima sitting on the floor, in great distress. She ran up to where Akima was sitting and bent down to console her. "Akima? What's wrong?" Stith asked as she held Akima's hands. "Stith is here, what's wrong?" she added. Akima wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at her Mantrin friend.

"He's gone." Akima said, between tears, "He's gone."


	16. The Secret of the Drej

****

Chapter 16 - The Secret of the Drej

Cale sped in his small Drej fighter toward the mothership. It had been a long journey through space, but it didn't seem so long to Cale. He was too blanked out by the Drej's signals. It loomed there, the large, blue ship. The three towers that were on the top and bottom of the craft made it look very similar to the Alahenena. There were three, quadrilateral openings on each side of the large craft that almost gave the sides an appearance like that of a face. There were two smaller, wider ones side-by-side and one larger, longer one in mid-bottom. The larger opening led to the hanger for the slijah and Cale flew toward that.

Cale flew slowly, inside the ship. The interior was blue, it seemed as if there was a blue smoke that filled the inside of the craft. Pillars that seemed to weave the ship together by attaching to the floor and ceiling, or wall to wall. Cale brought the slijah to rest on a landing strip near the entrance of the mothership. It was very similar to the landing pad Cale had escaped from in the Alahenena.

He fell through the bottom of the fighter and onto the floor of the landing pad. Looking around he saw several other slijah parked not far from where he was. There was an entourage of Droheh standing by Cale's stolen slijah. One large drone, who was deep blue in color, approached Cale and stopped a short distance away. "The Queen has been expecting you," he said in the Drej language, "We will take you to the Shaper of the Will, now." Cale nodded and followed.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale stood in front of an all too familiar looking throne room. There were countless drones lined up in squares on either side of the platform. Cale stood on the platform that had a magnificent design on it. His eyes still glowed with the Drej's energy. The ceiling was high, the room was large, and the stars were visible through a large viewing port behind him. 

A swirling mass of energy loomed before him. It all seemed to be emanating from a central point. It sent forth streams of blue and white that shot from it into the nearby walls around it. There was a type of blue ring about it; making it some sort of portal. It was a massive ring that was situated in the wall of the room.

A blue hand grew out of the energy, followed by an arm and another Drej hand. Soon, the entire queen was visible. She stood, looming in great height and power. Her four stilt-like legs held her large body up above the ground. Her back legs came out of her front legs and curved in the opposite direction. Her four-fingered hands were large and thick while thinner arms held them. Her neck curled around like a question mark with a large head at the end of it. Blue encompassed her black nothingness of a face while the eyes glowed menacingly.

"Cale," the Queen began, "awaken my child and embrace the glory of the Drej. Know that I am Hexajava, the new Shaper of the Will. To become one of my servants, you must first learn our ways." Cale still stood with a straight expression on his face. "You must always obey my command and you shall not challenge your queen. By doing so will I ensure your destruction. My vast armies will make sure will not survive in such a case; this is the system of checks and balances."

"As you wish." Cale blankly responded.

"Excellent." Hexajava replied, "General Tigaj," she addressed as she pointed to the large, deep blue Drej creature, "educate young Cale on matters concerning us." Tigaj stepped forward. This time, his eyes were missing from his countenance for again, with a Queen in rule, they had no will of their own. The Queen allowed things to happen, but only to the betterment of herself. Tigaj walked toward Cale and made a gesture to Cale to follow him. Cale nodded and followed him into a room where the General stayed.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale walked into the center of the room and stood with a blank expression on his face. Tigaj followed him and stepped around in front of Cale. Cale began to come out of his blank state and actually looked around the room. His fiery blue eyes beheld all that was around him. His attention was then focused on Tigaj as he stood before him. Cale turned and sat down on the floor with his back set on the coursing wall.

"How did you-" Cale began only to be interrupted by Tigaj.

"Get you?" Tigaj finished Cale's sentence.

"Well, now tell me how you read my mind." Cale blankly said.

"All we Drej are telepathically connected to the Queen. She sees through us when she wishes and determines our path of action. Sometimes, we can channel thoughts for ourselves through her and read each other's minds." Tigaj explained.

"How did you get me?" Cale asked while looking down at the floor before him.

"You've heard of our New Technology. Is that correct?" Tigaj asked with his arms folded behind his back. 

"Yes, somewhat, but I do not know how it works." Cale replied.

If Tigaj could smile, he would have. Instead, he began collecting words to help Cale understand exactly how it works. "If you look all around you, you will see mere objects, but it's what powers those objects is what is more important to us. You see, all around you is energy. Of course, you can only see kinetic energy as potential is stationary, but everything has energy nevertheless.

"As you know, we Drej are made of concentrated energy in bodily form. It was then that we realized that we Drej are really all across the universe. It is simply that we could not communicate with our smaller brethren before. Every time you saw something move, every time electricity runs through a wire, every time you flick on one of your primitive light bulbs is one of our kind with you. They are used for one's advantage and burn out without ever having a life.

"The weapon was originally designed for ships. It sends out a signal that allowed us to connect with our brethren. We could then tell them to make their own decisions and flow how they wanted to. They could steer ships, shoot with amazing accuracy, and even explode. 

"The weapon was redesigned to configure to creatures as well. We hit you with a wave of this energy. We can now control your very synapse fire in your brain." Tigaj explained as he walked closer and knelt down beside Cale, putting his face to Cale's. "We can control your thoughts and emotions. The old you is gone. Cale Tucker has ceased to exist. You are now merely another drone with a human body."

Cale still had some of his human consciousness left. With what little he had, he screamed in his mind. He was kicking and screaming within himself. The Drej side of Cale kept him under control. Restraining him from lashing out at all of the Drej. Then, he remembered the time he was hit on Gianni. That must have been when the energy was instilled into him! 

"Is there any way the old Cale can escape from your control?" Cale asked, as his head sank into his knees. He held his legs as he sat next to the wall.

"No," Tigaj answered, getting up from his kneeling position, "Why? You don't want him to come back do you?" Tigaj's voice roared. 

"So then, what do I do from here?" Cale again asked.

"I honestly do not know. It is up to Queen Hexajava to determine your destiny." Tigaj told. Tigaj looked around, almost as if he were checking that he and Cale were the only two in the room. He walked up next to Cale and copied his position, sitting down and holding his legs. "Just between you and me, I don't want Hexajava in rule. There's next to nothing I can do about it now, but perhaps you can."

"How?" Cale asked.

"You'll have to figure that out for yourself. You see, the Drej are far too advanced for their own good. Every species starts with a pioneering stage in their evolution. This is when the species is fewer and primitive. The Drej are nearing the end of our climax stage. Soon, we will not have the ability to continue in our evolution and will eventually be destroyed. I fear that the only way for us to continue is to become a lesser species. Mixing the humans with us is one way to complete"

Just then, Cale felt a strong pulling in his mind. He showed it by holding his head. "The Queen calls for you," Tigaj told, "go and don't disappoint her... yet."

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale stood in the throne room once more. He was on the large platform that was before the Queen. Countless drones lined up once again in long rows to form squares on the large floor. She stood there in all of her magnificence. Cale had a blank, mindless expression on his face. Inside, though, Cale longed to be free.

"Cale my minion, I have called for you." Hexajava said as she arose from the swirling energy in the portal-like throne.

"Yes, my master." Cale acknowledged. The Queen was pleased at his submissiveness. 

"I've read that you have a daughter on the way, do you not?" Hexajava asked.

"I do." Cale responded.

"At the time of her birth, I want you to retrieve her for me." The Queen began, "I want you to have an heir who will not have a knowledge of a life before us. This will ensure that she will not try to overthrow me, but that we might rule together with one accord. The daughter of Tucker must be converted." The Queen paused, allowing Cale to gather what she'd said. "Can it be done?" Hexajava asked.

"Yes," Cale's many voices replied, "she will soon be yours to command, but her delivery is not for a while; a few more human weeks, possibly."

"When the appropriate time comes, you shall dock with the human craft and capture your own blood." Hexajava told.

"Yes, my master." Cale replied. Cale bowed and walked away.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale stayed with the Drej. Their energy fed him as a replacement for soluble food. It told his mind that he was being fed so it, in a way, fed itself. In the time that he stayed he learned all the Drej traditions, customs, and their way of life. He still thought about Akima, though. Whatever remnants of the mind he used to have, he preoccupied with her.

_____________________________________________________________________

"I wonder if he still thinks of me." Akima said to herself as she sat in her room. She spent a lot of time talking to herself. To her, it was like he was answering. She thought about all they'd been through together: Sesharrim, New Bangkok, Andali, the Titan, Kronos, Qu'ut Minor, D'amara, and now this. She calculated how long they'd been married. She ended up with the conclusion of ten months altogether.

Come to think of it, that isn't that long as far as marriages are concerned. Basically, they were sort of still newlyweds. Well, Cale treated her like one, but now he wasn't around anymore. Once she thought of it that way, she began to get the concept of being a twenty-one year old widowed mother. That idea scared her. She continued hoping that he'd return to her.


	17. The Most Unlikely Redemption

****

Chapter 17 - The Most Unlikely Redemption

Later-

The Valkyrie was on a direct course for New Earth. They were trying to reach it before the Drej would. Akima was nearing her ninth month. She became heavy with child and Cale was still not back. She often times worried that he would not be there to see her being born.

Akima sat in her room. Now, all alone, she had nobody but her unborn daughter. She sat by the window and watched the stars pass by, waiting for Cale to return. After a few weeks, she still kept looking, but almost lost hope. She was in great despair and spent many sleepless nights thinking about Cale. Akima stroked her bulging, pregnant belly, as if she could touch her child.

"Akima," a raspy and manly voice called. It was Korso. He opened the large, metallic door to Cale and Akima's room and peeked his head in. "Look," he began with a low tone, "I know you miss Cale." He paused, letting her think to herself. "What if I told you that Stith has picked up a small blip on our radar screens. Configuration looks Drej."

Akima's face raised and her eyes widened as she took in what Korso had told her. Could Cale really be on his way to her? "Where is it?" Akima asked, standing up from the bed and waddling toward the door where Korso was. 

"A few keks away. We'll know soon enough if it's Cale or not." Korso said. Akima, with her large, green maternity shirt, was wearing her black vest. She figured it made her appear not as big as she really was. 

"I want to see it." Akima said as she hurried toward Korso.

"No, Akima, you need your rest. You're gonna have-" 

"Listen, I've been sitting around waiting for Cale and this is a possibility I can't pass up, so get out of my way!" Akima expounded, getting slightly agitated.

"All right, all right," Korso quickly said, "Come with me. We'll go check it out." He stepped in the room beside the door and held it open. He courteously allowed her to pass with ease through the door. When she was through, Korso stepped back out into the hallway and closed the door behind him. He walked behind her all the way to the bridge.

_____________________________________________________________________

Gune stood at the radar screen watching the small, green blip approach the center of the screen, showing that the craft was getting closer to them. Stith was at the laser controls ready to blast the fighter in case it was hostile. Korso followed Akima in as she stepped up the stairs that went off to the sides. She held onto the rail for support as she cautiously set her foot on each step until she was at the top.

"Is it a Drej ship?" Akima asked no sooner than reaching the top of the stairs.

"Yeah," Stith said as she grabbed the blaster controls and looked at the screen, "heading right for us." 

Korso pointed back at Gune and sat down in his captain's chair, "Gune, hail it. Ask for his registration number." Korso looked forward out of the cockpit window and grabbed the controls. He stopped the Valkyrie and turned it around to face the small, blue Drej fighter, zinging toward them. 

"Hailing, Captain." Gune replied. Gune punched in several numbers to send to the fighter. Shortly after, a number came back to the radar screen that matched Cale's identification number. "It's Cale!" Gune screeched. 

"Cale!" Akima said to herself, as if she were calling out to him.

Just then, a voice came in on the communications system, "I have not come to fight. Just open the hanger." Cale said.

"Captain," Stith addressed, "should we open the hanger? He could prove to be dangerous."

"Why have you come back, Cale?" Korso asked. There was a short pause over the line in which some dead air was heard.

"To take back that which is mine." the multitudinous voice returned. Korso looked back at Stith with an uncertain expression on his face. He stood up from his chair and faced the rest of the crew.

"Don't open the door." Korso stated. Akima shot up in front of him.

"No, open the door, please!" she pleaded.

"Akima, we can't risk it. I don't want anything to happen to you or the crew I have left. We're not gonna open the door." Korso restated. The blue Drej fighter slowed and stopped just outside their cockpit window. Everybody gazed on it.

"I don't care anymore, I just want to see Cale." Akima said to Korso's face as she turned her head from the fighter to him. Korso gave a usurping sigh and slowly turned to Stith.

"Stith, open the cargo bay." he ordered and turned to the window again. The Drej fighter disappeared from view as it flew beneath the Valkyrie. Akima rushed as fast as she could down the stairwell and out of the cockpit. Korso stayed on the bridge platform with his eyes shut. He was mulling over what he just had allowed to happen. Could Cale really be trusted? He finally turned around and opened his eyes as he whipped his pistol from his holster. Korso ran down the steps after Akima. Stith and Gune followed, but they weren't in a rush like the other two.

_____________________________________________________________________

Akima hastily walked down the hallway toward the cargo bay door. As she grew near to it, a blue glow could be seen coming in through the door's window. She reached for the handle to open the passage when it flung open by itself. Cale stood in the doorway. Akima stopped in her tracks as the room became dark and was illuminated by Cale himself. "Hello, Akima." Cale's many voices said as he stepped in through the door.

Akima's face sank and she began to tremble in fear again. Cale seemed to have more Drej energy in him than ever before. His eyes were a bright bluish-white and appeared to stare straight through you. He had a pulsating blue aura about him that gave off its own light. His face didn't seem blank anymore, but as if he'd been an enemy all along.

"Cale," Akima said with a shaky voice and a quivering lip, "What did they do to you?" She forgot all of her fear and ran up to him. He stood still as she embraced him and held him close to her. Cale's arms didn't wrap around her, but instead he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. She tripped and fell on the floor.

"I did not come to apologize, or to mend fences. I came to capture our daughter, Akima." he said as he slowly approached her. Akima turned over and defenselessly sat with her hands on the floor, holding her up. Cale pulled the same kind of weapon Molalah used on him at the Gianni outpost. He held it up and pointed the barrel at her. "You see, this is what made me what I am today." he said.

"Nobody move!" Korso yelled with his pistol pointed at Cale. He had just arrived and was standing in the doorway. "Akima, get up." he said with the pistol still pointed at Cale. "I knew you were gonna pull somethin' like this!" Korso said as he stepped out into the hallway.

"I came to retrieve my daughter. The Queen wishes that when she is grown, she rule for the human division of the Drej empire." Cale's voices told. Akima stood up and backed away. "Please put away your firearm." Cale told Korso, now each had their guns pointed at each other.

"Sorry, kid." Korso said. Cale smirked and shot the gun. Korso became startled and moved as the weapon was surrounded with Drej energy. It seemed in tact, so he pointed it directly at Cale again. Cale held up his free hand and opened it. The gun in Korso's hand jerked out of his hands and flew into Cale's. Cale threw Korso's firearm away in the opposite direction of them.

"Sorry." Cale's evilness chuckled. He pointed his large, Drej weapon back at Akima. "And now, I take you with me." He gave an evil half smile as he held out the weapon with one hand.

Akima threw herself on the wall. She felt sharp pains coming from her abdomen. Her face became surprised when she realized she was having contractions. Labor pains came onto her and she tried to keep herself from falling. Cale's face changed and his eyes stopped glow for a second. "Akima!" Cale's human voice called out. The Cale they knew was reaching out for he didn't want the Drej to take his daughter. Seeing Akima having contractions caused him to take action. Hearing Cale's voice, she tried to run to him, but fell on her knees from labor halfway.

"Cale!" she called back, "fight the Drej!" Cale held his head and screamed. He stretched out his hand to reach for her, but the Drej pulled him back.

"NO!" the Drej voices yelled. Energy shot out of Cale's hand and struck Akima, sending her to the floor. The energy shocked her as she let out a small shriek. The strike seemed to induce her labor further for each contraction was stronger and closer together. Cale flew back on the floor and shook as energy surged out of him and into nearby walls.

"Come on," Korso yelled as he knelt down and picked the weak and in pain Akima up, "We need to get you out of here!" She groaned as he drug her up to himself.

"Stith," Akima moaned, "get Stith." Korso put his arm around her and held her up. He walked her out of the room and rushed her down the hallway. They met Stith halfway in the hallway. She had a puzzled expression on her face as she saw Akima holding her belly and hunching over as Korso led her down the hallway.

"What's going on?!" Stith asked with a sense of emergency.

"Akima's gone into labor! We need to get her to medical!" Korso stated as he rushed her down the hallway with one of her arms over his shoulder.

"All right! I'll take care of her, just get her to medical, I'll met you there. Okay?

Cale lay on the hallway floor battling for dominion in his mind. He screamed and had extreme convulsions. Energy ripped out from his body and into the walls. He violently shook and tossed and turned as he fought. It was Cale versus all of the Drej energy within him. He sent his head forward and thrust it back with each surge of energy that was tearing from him. It streamed out of his eyes that didn't glow, but shone like high-beams on a twentieth century car. His throat became hoarse due to his immense pain in screaming. Then, he sharply stopped and lay unconscious.

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All throughout the Valkyrie, Akima's yells of pain could be heard. Korso and Gune were outside the medical room to allow her to have her feminine privacy with Stith. It had been a while since Cale had fallen unconscious and Akima began labor. Stith's voice could also be heard encouraging Akima, but was hardly audible over Akima's loud groaning. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale's eyes opened and ,for the first time in a while, there wasn't any glow from them. He sat up and rubbed his head. He'd hit it a few times with his convulsing. He stood up, still a little dazed. His vision was slightly blurry, but it was coming around quickly. He saw a blur of a man in a black shirt standing in front of him. "Cale," he said, "looks like you're coming around." Cale's vision sharpened quickly to see Korso there. "You all right?" he asked.

"I guess so. Just a little dizzy, that's all." Cale answered, standing baffled. "How long was I out?" Cale asked. Korso brought up his wrist and looked at his chronometer.

"About... sixteen hours." Korso said. "You've got a lot to be proud of." Cale looked at him with a perplexed expression while scratching the back of his head.

"Huh?" he said.

"Come take a look." Korso suggested as he led Cale down the hallway and to medical quarters. Cale stood off to the side as Korso held the handle. He turned it and ,with a clang, it opened. Korso leaned in and Cale could make out him saying, "Somebody's here to see you." Then, Korso stood to the side and allowed Cale to step in the doorway.

As he looked in the room, he first noticed Stith's large figure standing over a bed. Further looking around he noticed Akima lying on the bed with a large, felt blanket covering her and a bright light over the bed. He stepped in and slowly walked across the darkly-lit room over the bed. "Cale," Akima said as Stith stepped away to let Cale close. He crept closer to the bedside and knelt down beside it.

Akima had her arms cradled with a towel wrapped around something. Cale looked in the towel to see a small, round face. The eyes were closed and squinty while the hair was thin and black. Her right arm was out and grabbing a hold of the side of the towel. "Isn't she cute?" Akima said to Cale as he looked in awe upon the small body wrapped in a white towel. Akima had a warm, motherly smile on her face.

"Do you want to hold her?" Akima asked as she held Ruth out to Cale.

"I- I don't know how." Cale said, pulling slightly away.

"That's okay, dear, neither did I." Akima reassured with a small giggle. Cale held out his arms and let Akima put his daughter in them. When she had set her in his hands, she flipped up a corner of the towel that fell out. "Just make sure you support her head." Akima cautioned. Cale obeyed by repositioning his hands to hold her neck. 

Cale looked into his daughter's eyes and smiled at the face she made. It was a face that looked spaced out. "Hi, Ruth," Cale whispered as he held her close to his chest and hung his head over to look at her, "so you're the one that kept Akima up all those nights she couldn't sleep." He chuckled a little and began bouncing her up and down. Cale looked up at Akima with tears welling up in his eyes, "I'm a father," he said to her, "I'm a father!" he said again with a laugh.

Korso and Gune stepped in the room and walked up behind Cale. Gune hung on one of Cale's elbows to look at the small child. Gune smiled upon it and said, "It's a little human!" Korso stood beside Cale and folded his arms as he looked over his shoulder. 

"I don't know. She looks a little more like Akima to me." Korso joked. Cale laughed quietly at this and returned to looking at his daughter.

"Akima, about before," Cale said with sorrowful eyes as he looked up at his wife who lie there in bed, "I just want you to know that I couldn't stand to let the Drej hold me back as you went into labor. Enough strength grew inside me because I wanted to be here for this." he said as he held up Ruth.

"But why were you willing to give it up all so fast?" Akima asked.

"My love for you can never be stopped. Nothing can keep me away from my love for you, not even the Drej." Cale said. Akima began to cry tears of joy. She reached out of the bed and hugged Cale around the neck.

"Oh, Cale!" she whispered. She pulled her head away and pressed her lips on his. He leaned his head in the opposite direction as they both closed their eyes in this deep kiss. It had been the first in a while. Ruth reached up and grabbed on of Akima's long, purple bangs and tugged slightly on it. Akima drew away from the locking kiss and sat back in the bed. "You really _are_ back aren't you?" she said.

"I needed that." Cale said with a chuckle.

"There's more where that came from." she returned with a giggle.

"I guess I'll have to do you in now, won't I?" he playfully replied.

"She'll need her rest before she's ready for you again." Stith joked. Akima smiled at that remark and looked up at Stith. Korso looked at the three: Cale, his wife, and their daughter together. He was glad everything turned out all right and cracked a smile he'd been hiding the whole time.

"Stith, Gune," Korso addressed, "I think we'd better give these two their privacy." Stith smiled at what he said and immediately headed toward the door. Gune followed Korso as he began after Stith. Cale used one arm, holding Ruth in the other, to pull up a nearby chair and set it next to the bed. He sat down next to Akima and they each adored their little bundle of joy together.


	18. Battle for Earth

****

Chapter 18 - The Battle for Earth

Cale sleepily walked toward his bed. It was a few days since Ruth was born and the chronometer on the wall read, '22:34.' Akima was already in bed and had the covers underneath each arm and over her bare chest. Cale tore off his black shirt and threw it on the floor. He lifted up his side of the blanket and crawled into bed beside his wife. She was still somewhat awake.

"Just laid the little one to sleep." Cale announced as he flipped the blanket over himself. Akima rolled toward Cale and put her arms around his neck. She giggled a little with her eyes closed and snuggled next to him. "How you feelin'?" Cale asked as he slid one arm underneath her back.

"Better, giving birth isn't easy." she answered. This was the first time they slept together in the same bed for they kept Akima in medical until she finally returned to normal. Cale was so thankful she was thin again. Losing postpartum pounds was no biggie for her; she was still young and had a quick metabolism.

Cale leaned over on one side and put half of his body over her. With his left hand, he removed a purple bang from her face so nothing was in the way. His face crept closer to hers until he found her red lips and kissed them. She put her arms around his neck and held him close to her. With their eyes closed in this passionate and much longed for kiss, they kept in their embrace.

Suddenly, a crying sound could be heard. They continued in their loving until Akima held Cale's face and gently held him away from her. "That's the baby. Could you please see what she's crying about?" she asked. Cale gave a little snicker; he was waiting for nights like these to return, but now they had a child. He still loved Ruth, but sometimes, like most married couples, he just wanted some time with Akima.

"All right, I'll be right back though! Hold that thought." Cale said as he crawled off of Akima and out of the bed. He walked across the room and approached a box that they'd been keeping Ruth in as some sort of makeshift crib. They'd put several towels to cushion her as she slept and always put her to sleep on her back. "Now, what's the holdup here? I'm tryin' to enjoy your mom and you start all this crying business." Cale playfully said as he reached in and gently grabbed Ruth around the sides. He cradled her in his arms and kept the towel wrapped around her. Cale began to lightly bounce her up and down as he rocked back and forth and she stopped wining.

Akima watched with a smile on her face as she saw Cale bouncing their daughter up and down. She realized, then, what sort of father he'd be. With the covers still around her, she crawled out of bed and went over to where they were. She caught his attention as she quietly approached from behind and leaned on his shoulder. She peered down into the towel and saw that Ruth was asleep. "Good job," Akima began, "Dad." Cale looked from Ruth to her when she said that. He smiled upon it and placed the sleeping Ruth back in the crate.

"You ready?" Cale asked as Akima crept back into bed. She spread the sheets back over the bed as he approached.

"Whenever you are." she replied. Cale crawled back into bed and assumed his previous position of them holding each other. 

"Now where were we?" Cale asked. Akima leaned up and kissed him. It was another long, dreamy kiss. She pulled away and laid her head back on the pillow.

"Somewhere around there." she playfully responded. Cale gave a small chuckle and sent his face to kiss her again as he climbed on top of her entire body. Then, a screeching noise could be heard. The wheel on the door was slowly turning and Cale rolled off of Akima with a jump. The door slowly swung open and the appearance of Korso filled the doorway.

"We should reach earth at about 8:00 tomorrow." he said. Korso looked at the two and they had frustrated faces. Korso took notice that Cale was still halfway over her. "Sorry, did I interrupt something?" he politely asked, trying to save himself from being rude.

"I just want a quiet night with Akima! Sheesh!" Cale said.

"Sorry, I figured you two wouldn't be... this time of day." Korso said, not being able to say the words. He'd fully embarrassed himself as well as Cale and Akima. "I'll just leave you two to yourselves." He nodded and closed the door. 

Cale gave a sigh and turned back to Akima. "You still want to?" he asked. 

"We can do it." Akima smiled. Cale climbed back on top of her engaged her in another kiss. 

_____________________________________________________________________

The Valkyrie neared New Earth. A myriad of ships were all about the planet. They were ships of all sorts: capital ships, carriers, personal fighters, and upgraded personal crafts like the Valkyrie. They were of all shapes and sizes. It appeared as if the entire human fleet had joined together. Cale, Akima, Stith, Korso, and Gune stood on the bridge and overlooked the entire fleet. "What's going on?" Cale asked.

"I called back to earth and told them that we'd failed to secure the Orb. I informed them that the Drej are on their way. They drafted everybody who they could find that could fly a ship. We've been called back to fight." Korso said, "That's what I wanted to tell you two last night." 

"So that's it? This rag-tag group of fighters against a _Drej mothership_?!" Akima asked. She had Ruth in a makeshift carrying sling that went over one shoulder and around the opposite waist. It made a sort of hammock for Ruth to lie in and was made from some sewn together towel and a belt. Everything was covered except for her face which allowed her to look around at all of the lights and displays on the bridge. This sling made both Akima and Ruth happy. "Do we have a battle plan?" she asked.

"I've already discussed battle plans with other ships. What's going to happen is that I leave Stith and Gune in the Valkyrie. They will stay and help with the Drej stingers. Cale, Akima, and I will go in the Drej fighter with the EMP nuke and dock with the Drej mothership. We'll set it in the throne room and remotely trigger it to go off." Korso explained. Akima got a worried expression on her face.

"What about Ruth?" she asked.

"Ruth will stay on the Valkyrie." Korso told.

"During a ship battle? No way." she argued.

"We don't have enough time to put Ruth back at home, Akima. If we do, she'll still have no protection. Either way, she's still defenseless. She'll be safer on the Valkyrie." Cale said.

"But I don't understand," Akima squeaked, "why do I have to leave my daughter behind to fight the Drej?"

"Come on, Akima, we could use a good pilot and warrior like you. Ruth will be right here when you come back." Korso explained.

"But it's just going to be Gune and Stith. Who's gonna take care of Ruth?" Akima asked.

"Gune will." Korso explained, "Stith will be the gunner and I am calling in a pilot to fly this thing while we're gone." The door on the bridge of the Valkyrie opened and inside came an human. It was a young man, about six foot, black hair and had a red band around his head. He wore a brown jacket and a black shirt underneath with brown pants. He hastily stepped up onto the bridge and met them.

"Name's Porter. How you doin'?" he said with an Italian accent.

"Oh, really? I used to know a 'Porter'." Akima said. 

Just then, a message came in from another ship. "Captain," Gune announced, "We're being hailed." A green light blinked on the console.

"Let 'em through." Korso commanded. Gune obeyed and pressed the button. Some static was heard and was followed by a masculine voice. 'We have spotted the Drej! Everyone to your stations!' is what it said. Everybody on the bridge quickly became alert. 

Cale, Korso, Gune, and Akima went down the stairs. They walked out of the bridge and down the hallway. Akima stopped and Gune by her. She pulled the one strap over her shoulder and handed it to Gune. He put the strap over his head and set Ruth in front of him. He smiled and made funny faces at her which made her smile as well. "Now, Gune, you're gonna have to be really gentle, okay?" Akima said.

"She will be kept safe." Gune reassured the only way his simple and, yet, intelligent mind could. He entertained her, as if nothing was going wrong. Akima smiled, knowing that her and Cale's daughter was going to be in safe hands. She turned and followed Cale and Korso to the cargo bay.

Porter, the temporary pilot of the Valkyrie, went up to the pilot's seat on the bridge. He sat down and grabbed each side of the controls. "Let's get this party started!" he whooped. Stith shrugged him off and went to the firing controls. She turned them on and grabbed the triggers, getting ready for the Drej to show up.

The Drej mothership was coming near to earth. Swarms of slijah came rushing out of the main hold of the mothership, known as the Gehenna, and came screaming toward the human crafts. "Prepare a distraction. Use the New Technology on earth." Hexajava commanded from her throne room. The slijah allotted in one large group that made it difficult to tell where one ended and another began.

The human crafts started their engines and raced toward the slijah. Numerous earth fighters ran in squadrons of six. Each ship was different in their own way. There were carriers in which smaller fighters came streaming out of it while there were people in their own small, one-manned fighter. "Alpha group, report in." Porter said from the bridge of the Valkyrie.

"Alpha three, standing by." a young pilot with a goatee said.

"Alpha six, standing by." a black woman with dark goggles that didn't allow you to see her eyes said.

"Alpha two, standing by." an oriental woman called in.

"Alpha four, standing by." a fat and deep-voiced man said.

"Alpha five's here." a thin and ecstatic young masculine voice called.

"All right, Alpha group, this is Alpha one," Porter said, "I have precious cargo. I'll need some cover, over." The Valkyrie sped onward toward the Gehenna with all of Alpha group surrounding it. Two fighters flew overhead and one below while one flew on each side. The slijah raced forward with all intent on destroying the fleet. They didn't have the New Technology in their weapons because they needed it for the subjugation of earth.

"Copy that, Alpha leader." the oriental woman said. Then, the two armies of ships clashed. The Valkyrie took heavy fire as the slijah shot and veered away. The stingers swept over the earth ships like a swarm of bees. There were too many to count! Endless hordes of slijah poured over the ships as they sent torrents of blue plasma into the fray. 

"There's too many of them!" the black woman said. She had fighters in her sights, but they kept evading her shots. There were too many for her targeting computer to handle. It would skip from one fighter and when she'd fire, it'd skip to another, and another, missing all of them.

"Are you guys secure in the 'Trojan horse'?" Porter asked as he called to the Drej fighter within the bowels of the Valkyrie.

"Ready to go." Korso's voice said over the intercom.

"Opening cargo bay." Porter announced. Grunting could be heard on the bridge coming from Stith who was busy trying to blast as many stingers as she possibly could. She was hitting more than anybody else was. Already, she'd hit about twenty. It was very easy to her; she just switched the Valkyrie's auto targeting off and was shooting manually.

The Drej fighter Cale, Korso, and Akima were in fell out of the cargo bay when the doors were opened all the way. "Okay, Cale, take us out." Korso said from behind the two cockpit seats. Cale sat in the pilot's seat on the left since he'd flown a Drej stinger before and Akima sat on the right. Korso had the nuke strapped around his back, so when the appropriate time came, he could easily throw it off and trigger it. The stinger was lost from sight once it went into the group with the other slijah. Nobody on the human's side fired upon it because it carried a beacon that made it blink red instead of green. This was the only way to identify their diplomacy.

"Here goes nothing." Akima said as she watched the battle from the cockpit. "This idea has to be the most trite of all time," Akima began, just doubting a little, "or else, this'll be the shortest offensive of all time." She watched as they flew away from the Valkyrie, hoping that her and Cale's daughter would be okay. It was strange to her: in all of Ruth's life she'd been there. This was the first time she wasn't.

"It'll work. It has to." Korso told, "I planned it." He held on to the tops of both of their chairs. They each had their own weapons on. Cale had his shotgun slung over his shoulder and his Magnum pistol. Akima wore her wakazashi blades with one strap going over each shoulder and around the side while she had a pistol in a holster. Korso decided not to bring his EMP grenades because it might tear a hole in the side of the Gehenna while they were on it. Instead he had a pistol in his holster and a type of plasma machine gun which had a round generator on top capable of firing about five shots a second.

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The Valkyrie and it's squadron were receiving quite a beating. The Drej ships seemed to come at them, loop-the-loop, fly away, and come back shooting again. The Valkyrie, with it's size and illegally upgraded armor plating, could take such a beating. The personal fighters, though, could not.

"What you got?!" Stith taunted from the bridge of the Valkyrie. The stingers were dropping like flies around her. She'd fire on one, destroy it, and go to another. It was like shooting fish in a barrel for her. "Whooo!" she whooped as another fighter exploded into blue sparks.

"Ha ha! I like you, girl!" Porter exclaimed excitedly while steering the craft through the blue fighters. He swiveled his chair around to look at Stith who was busy picking off numerous fighters. She glanced at him and acknowledged his praise. He swiveled back around and began paying attention to his flying again. 

"I'm hit!" Alpha four, the fat, deep-voiced man yelled. His fighter was beginning to spark on the left wing. His ship looked basically like a arrowhead in which it had one round engine in the center and one on the tip of each wing. The damaged engine began to sputter and caused his steering to be off centered.

"Alpha four, are you okay?!" the oriental woman asked. Her ship looked Japanese: it was thin and was mostly red with a shiny, silver pointed tip. It had four cylindrical engines on a horizontal line and each engine had a long red cone that came out the center. Her fighter flew beside Alpha four's and she looked out her cockpit window at her comrade in distress who had blue lasers whipping by him.

"I'm ... ahh!" he said as his fighter spun out of control when another laser blast hit him. Sparks shot off as it completed barrel-rolls unintentionally. After a while of spinning, his left wing flew off and his fighter exploded. A splash of orange fire erupted from it and disappeared with the cold of space.

"Everybody, keep fighting!" Porter yelled over the communications, "We can win this thing!" The black woman smiled at his pithy, but daring speech. Still, endless rows of Drej fighters kept coming on them. They harried the human ships. The Drej strategy being used was: four Drej stingers versus one human fighter. This seemed to increase their odds of winning.

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The stinger Cale, his wife, and Korso were on flew toward the hold of the Gehenna. Somehow, it appeared more menacing than ever before as they grew near to it. The three towers loomed like horns above the mothership as the three engines streamed blue fire from them. They slowed, and flew into the white light that emanated from the square hold. They went into the Gehenna.


	19. Showdown

****

Chapter 19 - Showdown

The Drej fighter swept through the pillars in the large Drej craft. All around it was encompassed by blue. The stinger slowed and began to hover over a sort of landing field for slijah. It slowly lowered and set it's four, pointed landing struts down on the surface. The energy from the fighter seemed to empty into the floor that it stood on. It stopped its screaming engines as it settled.

Cale's body sank through the bottom of the fighter, sending him to land on the floor beneath it. His feet hit the energized floor with a humming sound. Korso fell through after Cale did and landed beside him. Cale watched the hull of the fighter eagerly waiting for his wife to slip through. After a while, she came crashing down and landed on her bottom. "I can't quite get the hang of it." she said as Cale helped her up. Cale didn't just grab her arm and pull her up, he bent down beside her and almost lifted her. 

Korso pulled his pistol from its holster and held it up. He had the EMP nuke still strapped on his back. He looked around, there weren't any Drej around. It almost seemed too easy. "Come on!" he yelled as he began to run out from underneath the stinger. Cale and Akima followed him as he ran. The hanger was a great expanse: it was about the size of a football field and the ceiling seemed too high to see.

Suddenly, Drej popped up everywhere. Several grew up out of the floor around them and immediately began firing. There were about four on a ledge that tried to snipe them as well. It seemed as though they'd planned to surprise them when they didn't have any cover. "Move!" Korso yelled as he ran for a nearby wall. Cale took Akima under his arm, trying to protect her from any blasts. Korso held his gun out behind him and shot several times. He hit one drone, causing it to fall back and disappear.

They each took cover behind the wall. Korso hung out from the corner and fired off some shots at anything he could hit. The Drej continued to walk forward, shooting whenever Korso leaned out. Cale and Akima stayed behind the wall for most of the time. Korso threw down his weapon and unstrung the large machine gun. He charged it up and it began to make a high-pitched beeping noise. Korso gave a barbaric yell as he jumped out from behind his cover and squeezed hard on the trigger. The machine gun shot forth such a great light and it sputtered out several blasts a second.

The Drej were mowed over when he sent wave after wave of blasts at them. One drone was pierced several times before he fell to the floor and disappeared. The snipers on the ledge Korso took out with ease. He simply swept the gun across the top of it and dissolved them one-by-one.

Then, a blast erupted just above Cale's head and he dove for the floor with a startled expression on his face. There were three Drej on the other side of the wall. Akima dove with him and landed over top of him as like some sort of human shield. She got up in a crouching position and pulled out her pistol. She quickly aimed for the one on the far left and hit it in the mid-chest area. It fell forward as it held its wound and diffused into the blue air.

Cale jumped up and spun his magnum around his index finger. He stopped and aimed for the drone standing in the middle of the two, the one on the left now gone. He snapped his finger back and shot a green blast at it. The drone's head flew back which left its body standing there. The separated into tiny sparks and eventually disappeared. A shot whizzed by Cale and nicked him in the right arm, just above his tattoo. Red blood began to seep from his arm as the blue plasma ripped the skin open. Cale groaned and held his cut with his other hand. 

"Cale!" Akima gasped. She aimed her pointed pistol and shot the last Drej. He diffused into the air with a blood curdling scream. "Are you all right?!" she asked as she touched his left shoulder. Akima said, 'all right,' but it sounded like, 'oh right'. Cale always thought it was just her accent.

"Yeah, I'm just a little cut's all." Cale said as he let go of his arm and just let it bleed. "Get Korso. I know where the throne room is!" Cale told to Akima. She immediately jumped up and grabbed a hold of Korso. Korso bent down and picked up the pistol he'd dropped earlier. He turned and they followed Cale out of the hanger.

_____________________________________________________________________

Outside, the battle for earth raged on. The humans were slowly losing their ships. It seemed like the humans were outnumbered ten to one. Alpha squadron, the squadron which Cale's team was a part of and the most important squadron in the fleet, had only two ships left. The Valkyrie and Alpha two were left in the squadron. The other squadrons had suffered losses as well and some were completely destroyed. The capital ships stayed back as a last defense and were the object of most of the slijah's attention. "Sigma squadron, this is Alpha one, how many are left of you?" Porter called on the communications system. A Caucasian man who spoke broad Yorkshire replied.

"There're four 'o us left, sir." he said.

"Join up with us! We're limping over here!" Porter ordered.

"Copy, Alpha 'n." he replied. The Sigma squadron flew toward the Valkyrie and helped return Drej fire. Sigma's ships were all identical: they had four wings which made them in the shape of a vertical cross with a small, cylindrical cockpit in the center a laser cannon at the tip of each wing. Their four engines were located in the rear center of the craft.

The Valkyrie, with its entourage, flew in toward the Gehenna and Stith fired off four shots. Cale, Akima, and Korso could feel the vibration of each plasma pellet from with the ship. Immediately after, four slijah began firing on them in defense for the mothership. One such blast hit a Sigma ship on the right wing and it lost control.

"I took 'n!" the pilot who'd been hit yelled. He was an American; this battle involved all people of earth. "Engines aren't stabilized!" he yelled. The ship spun end-over-end toward the Gehenna. "Aaagghh!" he screamed as his fighter crashed into the side of the blue terra of a craft. Flames billowed up and died down on the side of the mothership.

Stith fired the four laser cannons at the slijah twice. She'd hit a ship with each blast. Two slijah remained. They tailed the six human crafts and continued to harry them with shots. The Valkyrie was the only one that had rotating laser cannons so it was the only one capable of returning fire.

Stith grunted and jumped about, frantically trying to shoot any Drej that landed in her sights. On her targeting screens, she saw a blip coming from one of the Sigma squadron ships disappear, meaning that it had been destroyed. "Ugh! They're dropping all around us!" Stith yelled. Enraged, she aimed at a green Drej fighter's blip and fired. It disappeared as well.

Porter peered back in the bridge. He saw Gune on the main floor holding Ruth gently within the sling. She laughed and giggled as Gune tickled her with one thick, stubby finger. Gune made silly faces at her which continued her smiling. Porter saw their innocence: Gune and Ruth's. He finally realized when the ships around him were falling that he had a great responsibility on his hands. He turned back to the cockpit window and continued to fly the Valkyrie. "Come on, guys. Everybody's counting on you." he whispered.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale, his wife, and Korso ran down the blue hallway. There were strange looking pillars on either side of it. They were uneven square-shaped pillars that wrapped over their heads. It seemed an endless row of them, each exactly alike. They huffed and puffed as they ran in an all-out sprint down this long course. Suddenly, they stopped in their tracks as a blue beam of plasma screamed by them.

Cale and Akima jumped behind a pillar on the left while Korso took cover behind one on the right. Cale peeked out from behind the pillar and visually searched for the gunner. He leaned back behind it when another blast came whizzing by. "There's three drones down there!" Cale announced. 

"That's it! Only three?" Akima said while crouching on the floor beneath Cale with her pistol pointed out. She saw the drones Cale spoke of. They were walking toward them, shooting their blue guns that were seemingly melded to their arms. Akima fired two blasts, each one hitting a drone. The first drone evaporated as the plasma ripped through his body. The second hit took off the right leg of another drone. He staggered to the floor, trying to keep his balance. 

Cale leaned out and shot his Magnum at the drone on the floor, finishing him off. The third drone fired upon Cale as he leaned, but missed him. Cale ducked back behind the pillar and put his back to the wall. Akima, too, crouched back behind the pillar as the drone continued to pace down the hallway. He moved like his entire body was cumbersome to him. Drej were about seven feet tall and larger than humans, but they always seemed to walk strangely.

Korso jumped out and ran toward the drone with an raging holler and both hands holding his pistol. It was startled as he came rushing toward him. Korso shot his pistol three times as he ran toward the blue creature. He walked straight through the drone as it disappeared before him. "Come on!" Korso said, waving his hand at the two.

Cale and Akima looked at each other for they had never expected for Korso to pull a stunt like that. They shrugged and followed him down the hallway. "I have a bad feeling about this." Cale exclaimed. They continued running until they came to a large room.

"What are you talking about?" Korso asked as they continued to run into the center of the large room.

"It seems too easy," Cale said as they stopped over a floor that had a design of millions of purple triangles and a few large circles on it. "It's like-" Cale stuttered. Suddenly, Drej came up from the floor in a ring all around them. They all had their weapons ready and aimed to fire on them. Cale, Akima, and Korso raised their pistols, only to realize that if they fired, there was no way they were escaping. "It's like they were expecting us." Cale finished.

They all turned to face what was behind them. It was the Drej throne room! A slanted pedestal was before them and it reached up about two hundred feet to the large portal where the Queen rested. There were eight lights that surrounded the ring in which energy swirled. 

The Queen, Hexajava, emerged out of the ring. Her body only seemed visible when it passed through the swirling mass of energy. She stepped out all the way and stood where her subjects normally would. She peered down at the three with her blue, oval-shaped eyes. "I have been expecting you." she said as she began walking down the ramp. "I knew you would return to me, Cale. I actually drew you near to me. How could you surrender all that that the Drej have to offer? Power? Authority? Dictatorship? Does that not mean anything to you humans?"

"To some, but not to me!" Cale yelled, "My family means more to me than anything else!" Akima glanced at Cale and she smiled. He was sticking up to a Drej Queen! She could have easily ground him into a pulp. The Queen walked into the center of the ring the drones had made. The drones stepped back in order to give her ample room.

"Very well then," the Queen screeched as she began to reach the foot of the ramp. When she grew close and stood the same ground as they, she looked even taller. "I will destroy you for lack of loyalty to me and then take the entire human civilization under my rule." she said. Cale began walking back due to her immense size. She must have stood somewhere between fifty and seventy-five feet tall! "Hold those two," she commanded by pointing to Korso and Akima. Two drones stepped forward and held their arms, restricting them from moving. "If they try to escape, shoot them. Leave Cale to me." 

Akima and Korso tried to writhe and wriggle out of the Drej's warm hands in order to help Cale, but they were stronger. They Queen created, as if from the energy in the air, two weapons which she held in each hand. The one in her left was like a large, blue battle ax and in her right was some sort of large, blue dagger. The ax was double sided and the dagger had ridges on the sides.

The Queen spread her arms gave a loud, high-pitched sort of battle cry. Cale reached for his pistol as she screamed. Hexajava sent the battle ax down toward Cale. He dove to the left as it came crashing on the floor with a loud clang. The Queen watched Cale as he stood up and ran around to her side. He fired his pistol at her, but she blocked it with the huge dagger. Cale gasped as she gave an evil look with her eyes when she blocked his blast.

Hexajava swung her dagger at Cale's head from left to right. "Whoa!" He exclaimed. He ducked underneath the sword as it swished over his head. Cale's blonde hair flew around as rush of wind from the dagger came over him. Cale crawled on all fours toward Hexajava's right leg. She watched with amusement as he ran around like a small bug.

She lifted her foot and placed it over Cale's body. Cale screamed as he saw the stilted leg shadow over him. "Cale!" Akima exclaimed as she jolted forward, trying with all her might to help him. The Drej restrained her even stronger than before. The leg came crashing down as Cale rolled from underneath it. She lifted her foot again in order to find Cale. 

He stood behind Hexajava and aimed his pistol for her upper back. She turned as he fired and the green blast hit her on her right shoulder. The Queen had a heavy shoulder in which it came up over her head like some sort of thick wing. She held her the small hole that was in her upper arm. It seemed to lessen until it was gone. "Oh, no." Cale muttered to himself. The Queen let go of her shoulder and swung her dagger at him.

Cale held up his gun in defense of it because he was against a wall of drones. The dagger struck the gun and it flew out of Cale's hand. He watched it spin end-over-end in the air. He looked back to get a surprised expression on his face. The Queen had thrown the large blade at him. He dove for the floor in front of him as it swooshed overhead. It killed about five Drej as it hit the ground and stuck into it with the haft high in the air.

Cale looked at the stiletto protruding out of the ground behind him. A blade that big could have easily cut him in half. He glanced back up at the Queen again who had her right hand rushing toward him. She swung the large, three-fingered hand and knocked Cale across the floor. Cale groaned as he soared through the air and landed on the hard, purple floor. He lay on his chest with his arms forward. He began to get up. Blood trickled out of his mouth as he stood. Cale wiped it away with his forearm and stood boldly in front of the Queen.

"This is a mismatch." Korso whispered to Akima. She had quit writhing to talk to Korso.

"That's the idea. The Queen knows that all three of us could take her down, but she's ensuring her victory." Akima whispered in reply. Korso glanced from her to the Queen and Cale. She rushed toward him with all four of her legs and raised her fist at Cale. Cale stood there with the Queen's fist flying toward him. His entire body came limp as the backhand of the Drej Queen hit him once more. Blood from Cale's mouth sprayed out as he came crashing to the floor. "My God, she's killing him!" Akima gasped.

Cale held his upper body off of the floor with both hands propped up underneath him. He was panting as he drew each breath and looked upon the Queen. She approached him and threw her battle ax from her left to her right hand. "This ends now. The human race is mine." she malevolently said. Cale shook his head as he lay there on the floor. She raised her ax in her right hand, preparing to cut Cale like a butcher.

"Cale!" Akima screamed as she jolted forward as Cale lay in front of her. The Drej did all within their energy to restrain her, but somehow her desperateness escaped them. Cale watched as she stepped forward in what seemed to him slow motion. He saw her rip one of her wakazashi blades from the sheath on her back. She flung it with everything she had toward the Queen. Hexajava flinched as the sword came spinning toward her. Cale turned his head to see the two Drej that were holding Akima draw their guns. Akima didn't see them behind her, and everything seemed to move slower and the sound became muffled as Cale watched.

"Akima!" Cale yelled. The sword continued to fly toward the Queen. She stood there ignorant of the peril that was behind her. Then, one of the drones fired and the plasma ripped through her right shoulder. Akima winced as she saw blood spill from her open wound. "No!" Cale screamed as he watched her standing there with a fainted expression on her face. The second Drej fired upon her and it pierced her upper, left leg. Blood poured from it as she began to stumble and fall. Cale began crawling for her as she lost her balance. The first drone fired again and the blast tore through the side of her chest cavity. She was thrown forward from each blast to her back. "No!" Cale yelled again, rushing toward her.

Korso's face grew large as he watched Akima fall, Cale rushing toward her, and the sword. It stuck into the Queen's chest as she began to stagger as well. The Queen fell over like a tree that had been cut down. Korso looked around to realize that she was going to land on him! He tried to free himself from the hands of the drones who stood there and kept him confined. The Queen came crashing down as Korso dove dragging a few of the Drej with him. Hexajava crushed all the drones she landed on as well as his lower body leaving his hips and up left. Korso was still connected to his legs, it was just that he could feel each bone in them breaking as she came down. He gave out a large cry of pain as his blood began to seep out from under the Queen.

Akima fell to the floor, but Cale was there to soften her fall. She laid on the floor and Cale held her back up. He sat on the floor next to her, and was consoling her. "Akima?" he worriedly asked. Her eyes were faint; that was the part of her that scared Cale the most. He let her blood run into his clothing. "Akima?" he said again.

"Cale?" she replied as she held his hand. Her eyes gazed into his deeply. They seemed afraid and darting about. It was so painful to him to see her like this.

"I'm here." he said, holding the back of her head in one hand and let her hold the other.

"Did I get her?" Akima asked. Cale smiled, even though the situation seemed grim. He wanted her to see a smile on his face. Cale could hear Akima take each breath as it whizzed out of the hole on the side of her chest. All of the Drej, seeing their Queen lying there, sank and were absorbed into the floor.

"Yeah," Cale said, trying to hold in tears. Akima's eyes closed and she nodded back. Cale jumped when she did this. "Akima, don't die on me! Think of Ruth! Akima!" he yelled. He held her close to his chest and embraced her for what seemed to be the last time. He felt a faint heartbeat coming out of her. He laid her on the floor and sat up, his eyes rained out tears.

Korso reached for the EMP nuke on his back and set it in front of him. Cale looked over at him and noticed he was still alive. Korso pulled out his pistol and had the nuke in the other hand. "Korso! I need you to help me get Akima out-" Cale frantically called.

"Sorry, kid, I-, ah, I- I can't move. You'll have to take her." Korso said, groaning from underneath the Queen. "You'd better get out of here. I'll give you some time and then I'll detonate this thing!"

"You can't stay here!" Cale exclaimed.

"Just go! I'll be seeing you around." Korso yelled back, holding the nuke closer to him. Cale, still full of tears, stood up and ran to Akima. He slipped his arms underneath her flimsy body. He had one arm under her legs and the other around her back. Her head and right arm hung loosely as Cale tried to run while carrying her. She weighed one hundred and thirty-five pounds, but when she was like this, she seemed heavier. "Good luck, kid." Korso said as he watched Cale run with his wife.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale hopped in the Drej fighter he had come in. He laid Akima down on the floor beside him and had ripped off pieces of his black shirt and tied them tight around her wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Cale steered the blue craft out of the hanger of the Gehenna. He kept glancing down at her in a desperate hope. The battle was still going on outside, but everybody took notice of him leaving the mothership.

"They've done it!" Porter whooped, "They're on their way back! Now everybody pull away from the Drej mothership." All of the ships started flying away, but Alpha two, the oriental woman, noticed the Valkyrie was headed for the Gehenna.

"Alpha one, what are you doing?" she asked, slightly puzzled.

"They need a pick up. I've gotta go back!" Porter replied.

"Copy that." Alpha two responded. She began flying back toward new earth and the Valkyrie went toward the large, blue craft. 

"Stith, open the cargo bay. We need to get these people out of here!" Porter commanded. Stith nodded and ran with her kangaroo-like legs out of the bridge. Porter went back to the controls. The Valkyrie slowed once it grew near to Cale's slijah. The cargo bay doors opened and the Drej fighter came in. Cale fell out, holding Akima. Stith was there in the cargo bay to greet him, only to find Akima the way she was.

"Oh my God! What happened?!" Stith hastily asked as she ran up to Cale and helped him carry her up the steps. Once they were up, Cale began running down the hall with Akima in his arms and Stith following him.

"We need to get her to medical... fast!" Cale exclaimed, running frantically down the hallway. Akima's head bobbed about as his every step took them closer to the facility. "Come on, Akima." Cale muttered while carrying her. When they did reach medical, they quickly laid Akima on the table and began turning various systems on. Stith grabbed one of the famous probes and pressed a few buttons.

_____________________________________________________________________

Korso sat stuck underneath the Queen. He could feel her move, telling him she was still alive. It was either now or never. Korso held the nuke close to him. He looked at the small red button that was encased in glass for fail-safe reasons. He tore the glass from it and paused. Korso took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pressed the button. A white light shone from it. It grew and took out the floor from underneath him. The Queen fizzled with a scream out due to the pulse. Soon, the entire room was consumed with the light. It tore apart the ship and Korso was killed as space sunk in.

_____________________________________________________________________

The Gehenna shook violently in space as the white light erupted from it. It was a large, hollow sphere of EMP. It quickly grew outside of the Gehenna and continued through space. The slijah that flew around the mothership were completely torn apart as it swept over them. Since electricity was a form of energy, nothing was left of the fighters. Porter looked at the targeting computer. There was a large blue blob growing and heading for them. "Oh great! Just how big did you build that thing?" he exclaimed as he turned to Gune. Gune only shrugged.

A rumbling could be heard coming from outside the Valkyrie. Cale and Stith were in medical tending to Akima. She was starting to come around which made Cale feel better. She was busy looking around, searching for where the rumbling was come. They'd already sealed the wound in the side of her chest. The computer alarm on the Valkyrie buzzed. Cale gasped; he realized that this EMP wave was coming for the ship. "Turn everything off!" he yelled.


	20. Aftermath

****

Chapter 20 - The Aftermath

The wave grew nearer to the Valkyrie. It sped up as the wave crept up on the engines of the craft. The wave swept over the Valkyrie, sending it violently forward. The back of the Valkyrie was thrown over the front. Inside, all electrical systems flashed off. Everybody inside was thrown forward from the blast. Akima came off of the table, Cale flew into the wall, Stith slid on the floor, but Gune held on with Ruth around his shoulder. 

Porter screamed as he flew out of his seat and crashed into the cockpit window upside-down. Once the glass had stopped him, he fell to the floor. His head was the first to hit the floor, but under the weight of his body, it snapped to the side and his neck broke. His body toppled over onto the floor beneath the pilot's bridge. Porter immediately died.

The Valkyrie sped forward toward the earth. The thrust the Valkyrie had before the wave was still affecting it. It space, there's no air to slow it down. Soon, it entered the atmosphere. A flame began to accumulate under the hull of the ship. It rumbled and shook as the wind ripped violently over the craft.

Akima jumped up off of the medical floor. "No one's driving this crate!" she exclaimed. She stood and tried to gain balance from the wall beside her. Her hands followed the wall out of the medical room. She limped as blood ran a stream out of her injured leg.

"Wait! Akima! You- you're in no shape to fly this thing." Cale ordered. He chased her out of the room. She continued down the hall, heading toward the bridge. "We still need to stop some of your bleeding."

"Someone needs to fly it or we'll all be torn to bits!" Akima waved him off. Cale continued to follow her as she limped toward the bridge. "You said it yourself, Cale, 'I'm a pilot' and right now, I'm needed." she argued.

They reached the bridge. Cale ended up beating her to it. He ran up to Gune and held his arms out. "Give me Ruth." Cale said. Gune squeaked and pulled the strap over his head. He handed her to Cale by holding the strap. Cale grabbed her around the back and put the strap over his head. "Hey, Ruth. How's it going?" Cale whispered to her. She still had a small smile on her face as if she didn't realize what was going on. Cale held her snugly to prevent her from being hurt.

Akima finally reached the pilot's seat. She sat down and began pulling back on the flight controls. It seemed to have no effect. "Nothing's happening!" Akima yelled. "The controls must've been fried when the wave came." Cale looked from Ruth to Akima. She pulled back on the controls with all of her might. "There's nothing I can do... I'm sorry."

Flames came over the cockpit window as they plummeted through the atmosphere. The ship rumbled and shook with various components in the ship bursting and coming apart. Akima held tightly on to the seat as the swivel chair quaked beneath her. Cale put both arms around Ruth and he ran up and sat in a chair. It rumbled and thundered about as the atmosphere tore over the helpless craft.

The atmosphere went away and they received a clear view of the landscape rushing toward them. The terrain was flat and rocky with a mountain on the right and an ocean to the left. "Oh no." Akima muttered to herself as she saw the ground quickly approaching them. Cale beheld the sight and held Ruth even tighter. 

"Hang on to something!" Cale yelled. Gune jumped and hugged the base of the disabled radar system and shut his eyes in hope. Cale sat up in his seat, bracing for the inevitable impact. The ship careened through the skies. Various people pointed as they looked up into the air to see the Valkyrie speeding over them. The entire drifter colony stood outside and watched its descent.

The Valkyrie came crashing to the ground with a mighty boom. It bounced off of the earth and came shuttering down again. It slid on its side, breaking off the front left wing and bending the back two. Akima, Cale, and Gune fell to the left side of the bridge as it tipped over. Sparks and explosions erupted from inside as the jagged rocks tore the ship apart. 

The large ship hit a large rock, grinding it underneath itself and tearing the entire rear part of the ship off. The entire engine half toppled and eventually exploded into flames as it hit another, large rock. The Valkyrie continued to tremble on the earth, but it was beginning to slow down. It slid toward the small mountainous cliff that was beside the ocean and crashed into it terribly. A chunk of the rock was broken off as it bounced off and slid toward the ocean. It still rumbled, but continued to slow as it went into the shore. The nose of the ship sunk in the water and stopped. The waves had halted its crash.

Cale was sitting on the floor. He held Ruth in his arms still and checked her over to see if she was all right. There were small fires on the inside of the ship that were barely enough to cause any harm. Cale's face was dirty with black dust all over it from the various explosions. He looked around for Akima. She was laying on the floor with her arms and legs all sprawled out. "Akima?" Cale asked.

She groaned as she sat up. Her hair went from two bangs to about ten; the wreck had messed it up. She had dirt on her face as well. "Where's Ruth?" she asked, standing up from the floor. She wiped off some of the soot from her jacket.

"She's right here. She's fine." Cale announced. Ruth was crying and Cale did everything he could to get her to calm down. Akima came up to Cale and helped him with Ruth. Akima ended up taking Ruth as Cale told her he was going to check if Stith survived or not. Gune squeaked as he stood up from the torn floor which was actually a wall turned sideways.

_____________________________________________________________________

Cale forced the docking door on the right side of the craft open. The bright sunlight pierced through it and greatly magnified its intensity. Cale pulled himself out of the Valkyrie with a groan. He sat on the side of the door as Ruth was handed up to him. He held her with one hand and helped Akima out with the other. Once Akima was on the hull of the ship, Cale handed Ruth back to her.

Cale stuck his hand down and helped Stith climb out of the wreckage. Stith gave a groan as she stepped up on the ship. The outside of the Valkyrie was mostly black, dented, and scratched. There were gaping holes where the mechanics of it were clearly seen. Cale helped Gune out as well. Gune held onto Cale's arm with both hands and used his short, stubby legs to climb out.

Cale stood back up and turned to his wife, but she was looking at something different. "Akima? What is it, love?" Cale asked. He followed her eyes out onto the ground. There was a massive crowd of people from the drifter colony watching them climb out of the Valkyrie. "We won!" could be heard and, "They did it!" came from the mass of people.

The crowd cheered with a loud roar. They jumped around and waved their arms in the air. Cale and Akima stood together, Ruth hanging around Akima's shoulder. Ruth became quiet as she watched the funny people cheer. Cale smiled and grew nearer to Akima. "They know we were a part of the battle." Cale said to her.

"Cale," Akima said, "We did it! We saved humanity again." She turned to him and he held her around the waist. Cale smiled at her and she gave another smile back. Stith and Gune waved back at the crowd and cheered along with them. Gune jumped around on the Valkyrie and Stith laughed at his craziness.

"No, Akima, we saved ourselves." Cale whispered. Their dirty faces grew closer together. The crowd roared even louder when Cale embraced Akima in a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck like she always did and tilted her head. With their eyes closed, they were lost in this deep kiss. The crowd's noise drowned out just like the rain did on their first kiss. 

_____________________________________________________________________

That night, Cale and Akima were returned to their home, the Phoenix. It took them awhile since they'd crashed on a completely different continent. Before they left, they were cleaned and medically attended to. Cale and Akima were flown in an aircraft like heroes to their hometown of Houston.

Cale opened the door to the Phoenix. It seemed dark inside, it hadn't been touched in about half a year. Cale stepped in and allowed Akima to enter with Ruth. He shut the heavy, metal door behind him and turned on a lamp near the wall by turning the switch. Akima walked across the room and set Ruth on the bed. Ruth was asleep from the long ride and it'd been a rough day.

Cale prepared a small box and put several towels and clothes in it. He stood by it as Akima walked over to the box and set Ruth down in it. Akima gently slipped the sling out from underneath her and placed it on a small table not too far away. She returned and stood next to Cale. She held his right arm as they both watched Ruth sleep. "She's a quiet baby." Cale whispered.

"Yeah, I noticed she likes to sleep a lot." Akima replied. Cale walked away toward his own bed and ripped off his shirt.

"C'mon, let's get ready for bed." Cale suggested. Night was creeping in their window. The light from the stars outside created a surreal glow. Akima slid out of her jacket and dropped it at the foot of the bed. Cale slipped each of his shoes off and carefully set them off to the side so as not to make noise for the sake of Ruth. Akima sat on the bed next to Cale and unbuckled the three buckles on each long boot and flipped them off of her feet. She unzipped her black and green pants and shimmied them off of her legs. She had on only a green shirt with uneven sleeves and thin black underwear which was an aphrodisiac for Cale. She, then, slipped off her shirt and threw it on the floor.

Cale lay on the outside of the bed while Akima lay to the left of him, toward the wall. As she snuggled in under the covers, Cale lay on his side next to her. "Ahh!" Akima yawned, "Long day." Cale stroked her arm and she snuggled in closer to him. Cale put his arm around her back and propped himself over her. 

"You know, my life is workin' out. Got a beautiful wife," Cale said as he stroked her cheek and a purple bang. Akima slightly giggled, "I have a daughter. A house of my own..." Akima put her arms over his shoulder and rested them on his back. She continued to giggle. "What?" Cale asked, with a sense of confusion in his voice.

"Shut up and kiss me already. I know your moves." Akima told with a smile.

"Oh, if you want it that way..." Cale jokingly replied. He pressed his lips against hers and she gave a small, 'mmm'. Cale breathed heavily as the kiss became more intense. Akima began pulling her toward him. Then, he pulled away, "Care for another?" he whispered.

"Another what?" Akima asked.

"Kid." he finished. She gave a smile and leaned her head forward next to his ear.

"I wouldn't mind." she whispered. With that, she laid her head back against the pillow. Cale smiled and she shot a smile back. He leaned down to kiss her again. They leaned their heads this way and that, that they might enjoy the kiss fully. Akima rubbed his back. He pulled away again.

"I wouldn't mind either." he replied.

- THE TUCKERS WILL RETURN -

****

Author's Comments

I saw the movie Titan A.E. when I was fourteen on July the fourth of the year 2000 (I collect my movie tickets). When I saw it in theaters, I left saying, "Well that was fun." I grew up with "The Land Before Time", it was one of my favorite movies when I was young. Bluth could not have timed this film better for me since I was already a fan of his. When I saw the original Titan A.E. trailer (the one with Creed's "Higher" in it) I was determined to see the film. I even heard somebody behind me say, "Wow," when the trailer was finished. It wasn't until I began reading about Titan A.E. that I really became interested. The universe Bluth had created was large enough to rival that of "Star Wars". I became lost in the characters as I read deeper into their backgrounds. Each one seemed to have some intriguing story, some more than others.

Below is what I was thinking about each character, place, time, relationship, and whatever. Consider it like a behind-the-scenes look in to the making of this story. I also have a soundtrack to this fic which you can attain by e-mailing me at: pktc@mindspring.com In your e-mail tell me your e-mail address and I will send the files of songs to you. 

The Storyline - I was reading about the history of Titan A.E. when I came across a part that was focused chiefly on the Drej. As mysterious as they were in the movie, I learned a great deal. I had wanted to write a sequel worthy of being an addition to the movie, but I couldn't find out where to start. It was until I read about the Orb in which I finally jumped out of my seat (figuratively) and yelled, "That's it! That's how the Drej can survive!" Then for the next month or so, I went to my room every night and pulled out my notebook and began jotting down notes for a storyline. Then, I got a new idea, almost completely separate from the Orb idea was for the New Technology in which things could be controlled by the Drej communicating energy within things. And then, this just seemed perfect to fit right in with Akima's pregnancy; one thing sort of led to another. Eventually, I trimmed it down and here's what's left.

The Characters -

Cale - I tried to make the reader see a different side of Cale that was shown throughout most of the film. If you notice the point where Cale's character changes from a reluctant, people-hating person to a brave young man who'd sacrifice himself for humanity at the drop of a hat, it is on New Bangkok. He sees just how much this New Earth thing means and he eventually forgets his bitterness. This story, I continued Cale's character that we see near the end of the movie. He is loving and kind (note at the end of the movie the way he acts with Akima). I decided to turn this around just a little for a self revelation for Cale when he is overcome by the Drej.

Akima - She's always been the same. We know from her little anecdote on the Drej fighter that she is extremely humane. I wanted her past to come alive in this story because she had the hardest time growing up out of all of the characters. That was the intent when going to Ishaq and reminiscing about her grandmother. That is where most of her character comes from. She's also pregnant from chapter four (did you catch the hint?) to chapter seventeen which means that she couldn't see too much action for an expectant mother. That's why she hid a lot of times during action sequences. The arrival of Ruth also throws her into despair with Cale's possession by the Drej. All in all, I'd say Akima's character was the easiest to master.

Korso 2 - Not the original Korso. I think people got confused with this one. Korso did not die twice. The first Korso died once and the construct from Korso died once. They are not the same person. This one mirrors his decisiveness that he had before the Drej came. I gave him some memory so he could legitimately talk to people the first Korso knew (There is a theory that memories are inherited through DNA). The real reason I decided to bring him into this again was I needed somebody to hold the nuke and to still have a happy ending.

Stith - One thing I noticed about Stith from the movie, she has feelings too. People mistake her to be some large, lumbering thing that just points and shoots. That's not the Stith I saw in the movie: the only time she hurt things was when she was cranky or was physically threatened by something. Notice the way she treats Gune in the movie; this alone proves that she isn't some big meanie. Besides Preed said so himself, "normally, she's very good natured." I bet people didn't know this, but Akima and Stith knew each other before being on the Valkyrie. They were like two friends and I tried to show this special womanly bond between the two. Notice in my story how Akima keeps referring to Stith at times.

Gune - He's just some silly ... thing. He does have character and I think it pretty much shows for itself. He was almost too simple to impersonate in the story.

The Drej - That's one of the major differences between my story and the movie: the story has a few villains you can actually hate, or like, depending on how you favor villains. I tried to give the Drej in this story character; I was in an essence putting a Darth Vader where there were only Stormtroopers. I didn't make up any of the Drej characters either. All three Tigaj, Lehedihir and, Molalah were from the books. Tigaj was the militaristic savvy who enjoyed seeing the torture of others under proper standards. Lehedihir was sort of the power-hungry, raving lunatic you'd just want to slap across the face at times. Molalah was the dark conspiring type. He hardly mentioned anything and kept mostly to himself. Hexajava (Lehedihir) even has some intelligent royalty-feel to her.

Cale and Akima - The main focus of the storyline is the love that they share for one another. It goes through its trials and eventually endures. The real spotlight should be on the love even though the Orb is just something that was happening to test it. I wanted them to be married right off of the bat; this is implied by Bluth when Korso throws Cale away from the circuit breaker on the Titan and Akima calls in saying, "Cale, where are you?" followed by Korso's final words, "Go. It's better this way." I wanted them to legitimately have sex for the rest of the story. Ruth is the end result of their love.

The Settings -

Kronos - mentioned briefly in one of the books. It was where professor Tucker originally proposed the Titan project. I used it in the story as basically a head start.

Qu'ut Minor - Both Cale and Akima spent some time there, but they never met. Akima is distressed at seeing Ishaq again, someone she left during her teens. Cale went there and received inspiration. I didn't know exactly what Qu'ut Minor looked like. All I have is, "an underground city," I didn't know if this meant an ant-like sort of society with tunnels and shafts for the city or like some domed thing. I chose the dome idea because I though it fit the description. Po from the film (the big green squid that bullied Cale) might have been from Qu'ut Minor because he fit the description, but I decided not to take the liberty of giving a character with no named species a species.

D'amara - I got this vision from watching Batman Beyond. I wanted the planet to have large, black steel buildings. I had to take a leap of faith on this because I saw a picture of what I believe to be Commander Bencal who was D'amaran. It was a human person so then, I arrived at the conclusion that the D'amarans were humanoid (If you look in Star Trek, you'll notice just how many aliens are humans!). I wanted D'amara to be what a futuristic, non-apocalyptic earth might have been like. Watch Batman Beyond and you'll see Gotham fits the description given in my story!

The Gehenna - The new Drej mothership that was built even before they had a Queen. It looks precisely like it's predecessor, the Alahenena (the ship in the film), and is mainly there to hold the Queen. If you can envision the ship from the film, you'll be just fine.

All in all, I thought Titan A.E. was rated fairly, but that Bluth left a lot out of the film. He could have given the Drej character and told us what exactly they were meaning to do (the fact that the Drej were afraid of the technology the humans were developing was only mentioned once by Akima). It turns out though, that Korso was the real villain in the movie (for about twenty minutes). I am happy to release this story as what might have happened. It will stay with me as what did happen.


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